it started like every other morning. i was out of the house by 5.30. i said my usual prayers for protection in the car as we set out. driver and i had our fiften seconds of weekend catch-up and laughed a bit. driving in the dark is eomthing we have done together for 2 years now. 5.40 am, it starts raining...in torrents. windshield wipers are working full time and we are going at everybody's speed (i.e. about 80 KMH).
i have this terrible habit of not being able to relax on any drive, no matter how long. not borne out of any nasty experience, but just as my natural security mechanism to make sure that if i cannot stop something from happening during the ride, at least i can see it happen. so i drive with my eyes as it were, staring ceaselessly through the windshield, sometimes telling my driver why its only logical not to keep following a certain car, or why the next lane would be a better idea.
so as usual, i am staring into the dark rainfall when suddenly, the car in front of me screeches to a halt. he steps on the brake in short bursts and screeches each and every time. naturally, we could not react fast enough. here we were stuck between the median culvert on 3rd mainland bridge to our left and the stream of oncoming vehicles on the right. the floor was wet so stepping on the brakes all the way would have been disastrous. instinctively, we swerve to the right to see if we could hurriedly leave the lane we were and merge into oncoming traffic, that miracle didn't happen as cars horned menacingly and sped past us at the speed of light. we then decided that the only option was to swerve to the left towards the concrete culvert in order to further slow our speed down. as i look through the windscreen, it is clear that except there is a miracle, we were bound to smash into the car in front of us, who himself was still screeching.
just when i braced myself for the impact of a major crash, mr. front car used our abandoned tactics and swerved dangerously into the right lane of speeding vehicles. that was the most dangerous thing i ever saw. he barely made it in front of another car that was coming at full speed on that lane but immediately accelerated to match the oncoming car's speed and thus avoid a collusion. his action gave us a few extra meters from the source of this whole brouhaha and enabled us to be less forceful with the brakes. he disappeared into the darkness.
my next reflex was to look behind me, because i had been hearing screeches there too and i knew that as we couldn't replicate that miracle of merging into the next lane, a collusion was inevitable. as i turned to look, i saw two really big floodlights heading straight for me in the back seat. all i recall thinking was "my spine", and i got up off the back seat, clutched to the front seat and shut my eyes tight in preparation for impact. just before i shut my eyes, i caught my drivers eye in the mirror, he wasn't afraid. he was looking with determination at the side mirror almost as if he was calculating per second, when the impact would land. nothing i did could have prepared me from the impact when it finally landed. it threw the rest of my body against the front seat and the front seat sprung back and threw me back against the back seat with such force that i didn't even feel the pain. at some point i couldn't tell if i was closing my eyes or if everything had just gone dark.
everywhere then went silent, right there on the bridge with all those cars speeding by. not a sound.
time just seemed to freeze for what seemed like ten minutes.
nobody moved.
when i opened my eyes, i realized we were slightly closer to the source of the matter. some dude was bent down right there on the road, changing his burst tyre. right there on the speed lane of 3rd mainland bridge. i couldn't believe it. my driver just turned back and looked at me like he needed to be sure i was still breathing. i remember saying, "did you release the brakes when he hit us"?. He just smiled. He has driven me for so long, i can almost read his mind in dire situations.
the rest they say, is history. the car that hit me was a M-Class Mercedes Benz Jeep. My back bumper took a major tear and opened my car booth but that seemed to be it. it was a miracle. another car had run into the benz jeep from behind, shattering the drivers side of that car completely. The Benz didn't as much as cough smoke. so there i stood at the side of the road, holding the culvert in absolute disbelief when the guy in the 3rd car, who just managed to come out through the driver's side of his write-off, comes up to me and says "are you okay? are you hurt?". that was the last thing i expected from a lagos driver who almost lost his life due to no fault of his. i turn around and see he has a cut on the mouth.
i couldn't say a word. infact, none of us could. we turned around and realized that the nincompoop who was changing his tyre had driven off hurriedly while we were recovering from the shock. we just exchanged numbers and went our way. mercedes benz guy carried third car guy to hospital, i went to work. mercedes benz guy has called twice asking for quotes to fix my car, and gave third car guy NGN50,000 to assist him. its just another lagos day i guess... but through it all, one thing is clear:
I must get myself a Mercedes Benz M-Class.
i have this terrible habit of not being able to relax on any drive, no matter how long. not borne out of any nasty experience, but just as my natural security mechanism to make sure that if i cannot stop something from happening during the ride, at least i can see it happen. so i drive with my eyes as it were, staring ceaselessly through the windshield, sometimes telling my driver why its only logical not to keep following a certain car, or why the next lane would be a better idea.
so as usual, i am staring into the dark rainfall when suddenly, the car in front of me screeches to a halt. he steps on the brake in short bursts and screeches each and every time. naturally, we could not react fast enough. here we were stuck between the median culvert on 3rd mainland bridge to our left and the stream of oncoming vehicles on the right. the floor was wet so stepping on the brakes all the way would have been disastrous. instinctively, we swerve to the right to see if we could hurriedly leave the lane we were and merge into oncoming traffic, that miracle didn't happen as cars horned menacingly and sped past us at the speed of light. we then decided that the only option was to swerve to the left towards the concrete culvert in order to further slow our speed down. as i look through the windscreen, it is clear that except there is a miracle, we were bound to smash into the car in front of us, who himself was still screeching.
just when i braced myself for the impact of a major crash, mr. front car used our abandoned tactics and swerved dangerously into the right lane of speeding vehicles. that was the most dangerous thing i ever saw. he barely made it in front of another car that was coming at full speed on that lane but immediately accelerated to match the oncoming car's speed and thus avoid a collusion. his action gave us a few extra meters from the source of this whole brouhaha and enabled us to be less forceful with the brakes. he disappeared into the darkness.
my next reflex was to look behind me, because i had been hearing screeches there too and i knew that as we couldn't replicate that miracle of merging into the next lane, a collusion was inevitable. as i turned to look, i saw two really big floodlights heading straight for me in the back seat. all i recall thinking was "my spine", and i got up off the back seat, clutched to the front seat and shut my eyes tight in preparation for impact. just before i shut my eyes, i caught my drivers eye in the mirror, he wasn't afraid. he was looking with determination at the side mirror almost as if he was calculating per second, when the impact would land. nothing i did could have prepared me from the impact when it finally landed. it threw the rest of my body against the front seat and the front seat sprung back and threw me back against the back seat with such force that i didn't even feel the pain. at some point i couldn't tell if i was closing my eyes or if everything had just gone dark.
everywhere then went silent, right there on the bridge with all those cars speeding by. not a sound.
time just seemed to freeze for what seemed like ten minutes.
nobody moved.
when i opened my eyes, i realized we were slightly closer to the source of the matter. some dude was bent down right there on the road, changing his burst tyre. right there on the speed lane of 3rd mainland bridge. i couldn't believe it. my driver just turned back and looked at me like he needed to be sure i was still breathing. i remember saying, "did you release the brakes when he hit us"?. He just smiled. He has driven me for so long, i can almost read his mind in dire situations.
the rest they say, is history. the car that hit me was a M-Class Mercedes Benz Jeep. My back bumper took a major tear and opened my car booth but that seemed to be it. it was a miracle. another car had run into the benz jeep from behind, shattering the drivers side of that car completely. The Benz didn't as much as cough smoke. so there i stood at the side of the road, holding the culvert in absolute disbelief when the guy in the 3rd car, who just managed to come out through the driver's side of his write-off, comes up to me and says "are you okay? are you hurt?". that was the last thing i expected from a lagos driver who almost lost his life due to no fault of his. i turn around and see he has a cut on the mouth.
i couldn't say a word. infact, none of us could. we turned around and realized that the nincompoop who was changing his tyre had driven off hurriedly while we were recovering from the shock. we just exchanged numbers and went our way. mercedes benz guy carried third car guy to hospital, i went to work. mercedes benz guy has called twice asking for quotes to fix my car, and gave third car guy NGN50,000 to assist him. its just another lagos day i guess... but through it all, one thing is clear:
I must get myself a Mercedes Benz M-Class.
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