Driving Madness

Yesterday, I had three close shaves - and it is just all in a day's work.

The first near-accident involved a speed demon coming from behind as I signalled to filter left. I could see the multi-coloured speedster from afar in my rear view mirror. The next second, it was right behind me and intending to overtake me from the left as well. In a split second, I stopped filtering left and let him go.

A last-minute lane-changer almost caused the next near-accident. The pick-up cut into my lane suddenly, leaving me no choice but to slow down immediately. The traffic was heavy and I knew there were motorcycles all around me. Luckily, the motorcycle behind me managed to stop in time without losing his balance.

The third near-accident was the best of all. I was in a long queue in a traffic light junction and when the traffic light turned green, the cars ahead of me started to move off slowly (because cars from the next lane kept cutting into the queue). I saw the green lights started blinking (yes, there's such a thing here), then turned amber and finally, the lights turned red on the car in front of me. Is the car going to beat the red light? Yes! Then it was my turn. The lights were already red for a while. I made the instantaneous decision to beat the red light as well. Luckily I did. Because the car behind me followed closely and would have slammed into my car if I had hesitated. He had full intention of beating the red light.

Driving here is a daily menace. Careful driving or defensive driving or whatever you may want to call it may save you only in some instances but there are many occasions when it is really a matter of bad fortune. There are thousands of accidents everyday. Whenever I see one, especially a fresh accident, at the roadside, I would say a quick prayer - because I believe if I was at that spot a fraction earlier, it could have been me in the accident. That's why it's called an accident - and not planned collision.

This is not the last time I am going to blog about driving. There's a lot of frustrations all bottled up inside, you see. It is stressful. But like a fearless gladiator (cheh!), I will be out on the road again today. And many days thereafter. Say a quick prayer for me?