sonnestrahlen

Last weekend, might be the only weekend I would remember for rest of my life. Not for something happened, but for something that didn't happen - I wasn't "dead". And NO this is a dramatic horror story.

Long story cut short -

"I was on my way to Vellore in a taxi along with two colleagues, the driver lost control of the car speeding at 120kmph. And the car toppled and toppled skid on a railway bridge and crashed into the wall on the bridge. A minute after we got out a train just passed below the bridge, a little more speed we would have been on the tracks below"















Here's the long detailed version (with occasional pauses and frozen stills) -


We, let me call ourselves A,B, C and D is the driver. We were almost 50KMs from Krishnagiri and we passed the toll gate. The highway is awesome, awesomest for guys with a car like Civic or a Skoda. But, sadly we weren't among them, we were travelling in a Indica. The driver was speeding at no less than 100kmph. We told not to speed and we weren't in any hurry to reach Vellore, well he didn't listen, he had his own agenda and was in high spirits(he wasn't drunk).

There was this bridge over a railway line, near a town called Vaniyampadi some 60KMs before Vellore. The bridge has a curved climb, by curved I mean a 35-40 degree curve. And this driver D was too smart, and felt he could negotiate the left curve with easy. He was wrong and obviously was an absolute idiot - the starting point of reference for idiocy. B(me) and C were fast asleep in the back seats.

[Pause - screen frozen - the car's approaching the curve at 120kmph]
3KMs before, A and D got their seat belts on, soon after they passed the toll gate. B's sleep was disturbed, by the bumps at the toll gate, and his back ached. He got up looked around and went back to sleep in a more comfortable position.

[Scene resumes]
B opens his eyes, sees the driver turning the steering completely to the left and holding it hard[the first mistake]. And then hits the brakes hard[see, the second mistake]. The car screeches and hits the divider. And then completely turns towards the left with almost a 90 degree skid and then suddenly flies off the road and topples towards the right and hits the road. And then again topples over again, hits the road again and then topples again

[Pause]
No, wait A who was sitting in the front seat, interrupts saying that he just felt his head being upside only twice. B realized he was on a bridge and in a few moments he would be inside the river below the bridge and only thing that flashed to him was to get out of a car that would crash into a river and how would A and D, who were wearing seat belts get out.

[Scene resumes]
The car toppled twice and skid upside down and hit the boulder on the bridge, some 100 meters away from the last tyre marks on the road. B hit the door, and then hit his head and nose again something, maybe it was C. And was thrown side to side with the car toppling over and over. Everything was so fast that, it happened between the split of B opening his eyes realizing the car hit something and that he was inside a upside down car. B opened the door locks of both the rear doors, expecting the dors to be stuck, he had to kick one of them(but they weren't) B had a east escape out of the door and rushed to safety thinking the car might catch fire.

[The car was lying upside down, the windscreen shattered. The rear glass came off in two pieces]
B's nose was bleeding like water running of a tap. A was petty shaken up, standing and looking helpless, C came out holding his head and felt giddy for a couple of seconds before he could stand firm. D was pulled out and he was moaning with pain. There was blood all over the road and the car, from a severed blood vessel in the driver's hand.

A couple of passing by people on bikes stopped and called the ambulance. B went back to look for the costly gift and got his camera and bags out. A, B and C stood a few meters away from the scene, still in shock and wondering whether to laugh or cry. They looked at each other for injuries. B's nose was still bleeding and his handkerchief was soaked in blood. He then realized the new sweater his mom got for him and his pant had blood stains all over them.

Highway Patrol arrived. NHAI ambulance reached the scene in 5 minutes and they were driven off to the nearest hospital in the next 10 minutes. The accident happened at 9:20AM and they were in the hospital by 9:40AM. The nurses attended the driver and one of them checked and made sure, we had no serious injuries. A and C got anti-tetanus injections, B was still wary of the hygiene of the hospital and hesitated to get the shot.

[Scenes fades aways with the arrival of a constable on a 'TVS Luna' :)]

The police arrived to get the details and statements. We had to stay till the taxi owner came. We either had to file a complaint before leaving. I was shit scared of the bureaucracy that would follow than the fact that I was almost dead. I stayed at the hospital listening to House M.D. and Ghajini soundtracks. A and C went to the scene to get the original documents of the car and wait till the owner arrived.

I chose to block the incident, till I could get into talking terms with the reality. After the owner reached the town at around 3PM, we went to the police station to complete the formalities and get back to Bangalore. Also grabbed a few banana's and some Maaza. Then waited at the police station for around 3 hours to complete the paper stuff and left Vayinampadi at around 6PM. There were two people who had helped us throughout the day. One was the constable(E) who came to get the statement, he was old enough to curse the modern day businessmen and how they have lost the sense of value of human life. Other was a guy(F) working at a local handicraft workshop.

It was confusing, I couldn't understand whether F was in, expecting to be paid for help or was the real "good samaritan". Before leaving we offered him money, and got back embarrassment from a guy who really expected nothing from us.

Paranoid and scared to death of hiring another taxi, however in pain we unanimously decided to travel by a 'government offering' - the bus. There was one vacant seat and we took turns for resting our legs. C's leg pain increased, he sat down and A being thin like a stick sat down on C's other leg. I chose the footboard to rest my tired ass, longing for enough to stretch my legs and crackle the joints. I held the rods tightly,with my both my hands locked against the rod and dozed off. Everytime the bus jerked or turned sharply I held the rod tighter. I never was so afraid of traveling, ever in my life.

I reached Bangi at around 10:30PM, reached home, surprised my roommates, took a steaming hot water bath. Looked up myself in the mirror for bruises and inflammations. Every part in my body ached. Ate a packet of jim-jam biscuits and half litre of frooti and slipped into blissful sleep.


Here are the pictures taken by C of the damaged taxi -






PS: I am fine, just 3 scratches and possibly a broken nose which would result in an opportunity to straighten my nose or a disaster leading to the more mis-alignment of my nose :D