BE PREPARED FOR THE WORST

 Sir,

Accidents are not optional, where and when they occur is simply fate, something you may not wish for but it happens all the same. What really matters is how one handles the aftermath; some people levy you with all the collateral damage to show their bravado or simply play for time to expose your fragility or ignorance of whatever sorts.

As I wrote this letter I recollected a horrible incident that occurred a few years ago where a friend’s vehicle was fatally damaged by some rogue over-speeding somebody who was employed in Carolina.

This character, whether he was on steroids or drunk or both, decided to overtake a chain of multiple vehicles, obviously on double barrier lines for both directions on the R40 about 30km from Badplaas to Nelspruit, where the huge Mondi forest plantations start.

I salute Jose’s Breakdown Services from Barberton, which saved the day to tow and store the remains of the 2013 VW Polo bought a few months earlier at a cost of R137 000. Optionally, the aggressor demanded to take it to ‘his yard’ in Caroline, where scavengers would have dug their fangs on whatever resembled car parts.  

The time was 4.30pm, a rather chilly Sunday afternoon in mid-July that we managed to extricate the 15-year-old girl from her favourite TV programme for an arduous 190km drive from Mbabane to Nelspruit, signalling the end of the South African winter school holidays. After 20 minutes or so we joined the long snaking queue at the border – guests were driving back to Africa’s largest economy having enjoyed the kingdom’s tranquil or simply locals fending for their families.

Darkness

Darkness was coming thick and fast, after all it was only 30 days from the longest night of the southern hemisphere. At about 7pm, we started the R40 incline after Badplaas preceding the large swath of conifers leading to the T-junction from Barberton to Nelspruit. The vehicle lines were long both ways, something reminiscent of the day preceding the following Monday, a working/school day.

After a few minutes on the steady rise, suddenly a rampaging black Golf GTi emerged from the opposite direction at full speed on our lane, giving our driver no chance to move and make way, even then the donga on the left would have offered no reprieve as well!

Our car was hit from the front fender and grazed all the way to the rear wheel before the aggressor car spun across the road to a dead stop some 10m down, while our vehicle danced to a paralysis on the edge of the road. The shattering glass scintillated on all the occupants, the driver receiving the worst including lashing from broken doors and other body parts on the 45-degree attack.

We slid out of the wreckage through what remained of the vehicle on the left side, all in amazement, whether from the scene just witnessed or disbelief of survival. The driver behind rushed to us as if to confirm life and yelled ‘I was driving right behind you guys as that lunatic came overtaking all the cars going down and just missed by inches’! Our child was crying helplessly.

police

The offending driver remained in his car until the police arrived some 30 minutes later, his car was an equal victim with black oil oozing to the tarmac and steam rushing out of the bonnet with both front wheels burst.
The police came and statements where written. The offending driver convinced the police to ask us to give him the wrecked car to take care of, something we did not agree to.

The towing service arrived and took the car to his garage in Nelspruit while some good Samaritans offered to give us a lift back while the police took the pupil to school.

The rest is history. We ended up paying for our own vehicle as the offending driver kept on ducking and diving until for over six months when we realised that the price of phone calls and travelling back and forth to the Badplaas police yielded no fruits.

GE

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