Monday, August 14, 2006

Wrecked my car

Yes, I wrecked my car few nights ago. Well actually it was morning. I had a few drinks, before that. Not drunk, just careless and wasn't pay full attention on the road. At one of the corner, I think I step on the break a little to hard, and combined with the slippery road and also the rubber strip on the road, sent my car into a spin.

In that split second, I don't know if I should just let the car continue to spin or should I step harder on the break. The car was thrown toward the curb on the left side of the road. I think I tried step on the break again, but to no avail. Then I turned the steering wheel to counter the spin, maybe I turn wheel a little too fast, and that brought the car to spin in another direction. I felt hapless and the car was beyond my control anymore. That was when I gave up trying and let the car head straight into the curb on right side of the flyover.

The car come to a sudden stop when it hit the curb. The car was in perpendicular to the curb. I didn't remember when did I switched the gear to neutral, but that was the position it is in when I wanted to switch to reverse the car and get out from the tight corner before any vehicle come from around the corner and bang into me. To get down the car and check the damage was definitely not a wise move. In that tight corner, any vehicle could come anytime and it may be too late for them to notice a stagnant car stop in the middle of road, and bang right into it.

It took a couple of reverse and maneuvering before I manage to bring my car out from the tight spot, and from the feels of it I don't think there is any damage to the engine or internal moving part of the car. Both light are still functioning, the engine sound ok. It's just a couple more km's to my house. So I just head straight home.

Only once I reached home and parked my car did I come down from the car and checked the damage. Everything was still there. There is a dent on the front bumper, there is also a couple of dent on the bonnet. These two alone could make a big dent in my wallet.

Based on the rough estimation from the guy at the service center just now, the repair will easily cost 6 to 7 grand. There goes my NCB. Gonna have to pay for higher premium for insurance next year. Life's suck!

Anyway, I was lucky to escape from any bodily injury, and also for the fact that there is no car tailing me during the accident and after the accident when I was getting out from the tight spot. So what do I learn from this? I guess, I learn nothing.

Though this could be the most serious accident (at least in term of damage to my wallet) that I had ever get into, it's not the first. Through out 16 years of driving and riding, I had not more than serious 3 accidents. Most of the time, it's because I wasn't paying full attention. When I said I wasn't paying full attention, it's not sometime like paying 60% or 70% percent attention on the road. It's more like paying less than 50% attention on the road :P It's my bad.

In the last accident, maybe 8-9 years ago, I was on my kapcai and was greeting a certain receptionist who happen to come out from the factory gate and standing by the road side. The next thing I knew, the bike hit the hump and send itself and me flying into the air. The next thing I knew, there were blood on my left hand and left leg. I can't remember exactly how I fly and hit the ground, but from the wounds, it's obvious that I landed with left side of my body first. There was wound on my pride too, I guess :P

The receptionist, and a security guard came to me. Help me up to my feet, and brought the bike up. As in most of situation like that, adrenaline which being pump into my blood sort of suppressed the pain from of the wounds. Also being the stubborn ass that I am, I rode more than 15km all the way back home with the torn shirt, pant and flesh. I got home and took a bath and clean the wounds myself before head to clinic :P The cut on the back of my left hand was pretty deep that, the scar remains until today. But what did I learn? Zero!

I am thinking, can we really avoid accident? Probably to a certain extends, but not totally I think. It's has to do with luck (or karma or whatever you name it). Just like death. When it's time, there is no escape. Well, you may delay it sometimes. But sooner or later, it will get to you. So why worry too much about it? Worry is good sometime if taken in small little dose, but not too much. When it started to take a fun out of our life, that's when to stop. Too much of a good thing may not necessarily be a good thing.

The key word is balance. That accident I had few nights ago, it's probably a natures (or karma) ways of achieving balance. It snap me out of my inattention, and brought thing back into a balance before it's too late. Before I get into a much serious imbalance state, which may require a life or more to achieve the balance again. It could have been worse.