Tuesday, November 01, 2005

a feign within a feign, within a feign

Howdy boys and gals. Today, me and my family were supposed to be in penang. But alas, fate has other plans for me.
    On the way to penang, we drop by my brother's in law's house, to extend some goodies. We were on our way to my mum's acquaintance when a red iswara took a bend but forgot to follow the dotted line and banged our car smack dab in the middle. Thankfully, nobody was injured.
    At times of crisis, we tend to meditate on the situation. First came the what ifs. What if i was driving? what if we were late? What if I dilly dallied when packing?
    Then there was the observation of human behavior. People become selfish during crisis.
    Any, all accidents sucks. It ruins lives and plans. That was my first thought. Right after we're banged. "How are we supposed to go to penang then!?".
    Another thing that i observe is how calm i was when the car banged us. Really. Usually i'd be sitting at the edge of my seat if my dad barely miss the devider, or he confidently took a turn when there's motorcyclist around. But this time around, I saw it all happen right in front of my eyes, and i was a complete blank. Nothing. No fear. No shock. No "aiiieeeeeeeeeeee~~!". No pedalling the non-existant brake. No nothing. I just sat there and let it happen. Maybe it's my inherent ability to know that things will go fuckedup and no non-existant-brake-pedalling will save us.
    So the car banged us. It was the driver's fault. He was not paying attention to the road. Really. If you look at the collision spot, you'll see that it's riiiiight in the middle of our lane. All the broken glasses are there. In fact, I believe that if we're not there to cushion the collision, he'd end up in the drain or banged a mango tree or something. Maybe we even saved a life. There's a child on board. He's sitting in the passenger seat. Safely buckled.
    Anyhow. There we were. Instead of on our way to penang, we're moping around in the middle of the midday heat during Ramadhan. I'm feeling a deep craving for tebu ais now. Yumm. Maybe i'll scoot over to pasar ramadhan for some before berbuka.
    Anyway. What i was going to say was, if you happen to be in an accident, do this:
  1. Get the exact time of the accident.
  2. Get the other car's registration number.
  3. Get the other car's description. What kinda of car, the color, the brand. etc.
  4. Get your car to the police station to show it to the traffic sergent. He'll want to snap some pictures for the insurance.
  5. Finally get your car to the workshop.
Everything else is unimportant. You don't really have to know the other driver's name, his number and all. It's handy to have. But unneccessary. It's usefull if you want to cut a deal. But usually, if you want to claim the insurance, those details are not necessary. It will only make things worst. You'll end up discovering that the other driver's daughter in law's nephew is sick and he's in a hurry to get to him. He don't have a legit license. He's penniles. He's got a friend with a workshop that can get you rock bottom prices. Well, things like that might get you in hot water. Well, i might sound a bit harsh.. Too harsh. Too rigid. Maybe you might want to cut a deal or something. And maybe it's handy to deal with it personally.
    Anyway, we did a mistake just now. We sent the car to the workshop first before the police station. Now the sergent can't snap the record photos, so we had to do it all again tommorrow.
    Happy Hari Raya people. Drive safely. But if you fucked up along the way. Dont' worry and remember the magic 4G and an F. Because things will go fucked up. It's just a matter of where, when and how.

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