Suay!!! - 2

04 March 2007, Sunday - Wah lao..... What a start to the year of the Golden Pig....

We were happily going about on our way to Market Square at Sunnybank, when suddenly a white car who was trying to overtake a car that's turning right, started turning into our lane, not seeming to see that we were right beside her. So we sounded our horn and stopped in our tracks to avoid the collision. Luckily, both of us managed to stop in time to avoid the inevitable.

However, that was not the end of the story yet. Approximatey 10 seconds later, we were rammed from behind! It was unexpected and the bump from behind had given Yenki and me a whiplash from the seatbelt.

It wasn't a very major bump, but it had managed to dislodge the head unit (stereo) from it's "box", the exhaust pipe from it's holder.


The popped out head unit / stereo....







The culprit? A 50+ Bosnian man driving his month old Honda Jazz. He was mad, and came out of the car, ranting and raving about, accussing us that we had caused the accident and that there was no reason that we had to stop at that T-Junction. He demanded that the police be called and had possibly called but failed.

The "Honda" sign was "stuck" underneath our car license plate...










As much as we tried to explain (in English) and calm him down, the 'uncle' didn't seem to take a word in and continued about his ranting ways. As there were no injuries or damaged public property, the police will not get themselves involved and will only instruct us to take down each other details and go directly to our respective insurance companies. In the end, he resorted to calling his daughter who was at Kuraby. But his mobile had ran out of credit, so he had politely requested to borrow my mobile to call his daughter, and he thanked me for it. But right after that, he turned his head to face Esmond and started ranting again. (I don't know if it's the adrenalin or the shock, my hands were shivering as I was keying in the numbers! But I still kept my cool... )













When his daughter came, he told his side of the story. Then his daughter listened to our side of the story, took a look at both our cars and told her father our side of the story. As much as she tried to explain in their own language, her father still refuses to accept our version, even though we had taken down the license plate of the white car and was willing to hand it over to them for their insurance claim.


The dented bonnet of the 1 month old Honda Jazz...







So the daughter turned to us and said, "Don't mind my father. This is how they handle accidents in Bosnia." She also said that she knows that it's her father's fault because he had rammed from behind. In Australia, regardless of any kind of situation, you will be at fault if you are the one who rammed other people from behind. So to her daughter, it is clear that there's no point in pointing fingers at us.

Fortunately, both of us have comprehensive insurance, and we each only have to pay a minimum sum of $300 - $400 for total repair of our cars.

Again fortunately, his daughter was very understanding and reasonable. There wasn't any drama. The same cannot be said about her father though. Because, in order to illustrate his version of the story, he himself had gone into the middle of the road, ranting and shouting about, hands pointing everywhere, not minding that there are oncoming cars on both sides of the roads and he himself might cause more accidents and endanger himself and others. His daughter and son-in-law had to drag him back to the sidewalk more than 3 times!

So what have we learnt from this episode?
1) Anything can happen anytime when you least expected it
2) You can just lose somebody in a blink of an eye (we met Kelvin on the road barely 5 minutes before the accident)
3) Seatbelts saves lives (it saved me from banging my head against the dashboard, Esmond against the steering wheel, Yenki against the back of the driver's seat)
4) Speed kills (on a stretch of 60km/h, Yenki and me have whiplash from the seatbelt. I felt the "force" of being thrown to the front. If the car behind us had gone any faster, say 80 - 90 - 100km/h, there'll surely be much more serious injuries, i.e. got blood and possibly bone jutting out as per army's saying....)
5) Stay calm, no point shouting and pointing fingers, ranting and raving like a lunatic

So, even though we were involved in an accident, we have to be thankful that:
1) there's no serious injuries,
2) that the car wasn't any faster than 60km/h,
3) that the daughter was understanding and reasonable,
4) that people were concerned about our situation and had came out of their houses to check if everything was fine (one even offered to let David wash his hands in the tap in the garden),
5) that we have our friend's support and concern (thanks David! for rushing out to our aid and putting the exhaust pipe back into its place),
6) that we had purchased comprehensive insurance coverage

Hopefully, this minor little accident has warded off any big ones that may be heading our way this year.

P/S: After putting the exhaust pipe back in place, we proceeded on our way to Market Square to do our grocery shopping.


Esmond: Hello, hello... yah, some bugger kiss my bum lah.. damn suay lah..

Interesting looking melon / gourd...








金猪年差一点变猪头。。。

在今年农历新年的元宵节上午，我们正想要到市场买些食品。三人一同坐一辆车子，朝向小台北方向驶去。路途中我们还遇上了Kelvin，闲聊了几句才继续我们的路途。怎知，不到五分钟后，我们便被追撞！

有一辆白色轿车，为了避免跟在右转的黑色轿车，驶近了我们的路线。那司机并没有意识到我们就在她的左边。为了避免与这辆白色轿车相撞，我们想起了喇叭，并同时紧急刹车。

我们庆幸没有跟这白色轿车发生意外。正当我们把视线都放在那司机上，我们被一股推动力，强力的推向前！

我心想，“糟了！我们被追撞！”

我担心益荣 和美玉受伤，赶紧往他俩瞄了一下。辛好，他们都没什么大碍。

很奇怪，我并不觉得撞击声很大，可是屋内的人都纷纷跑出来看个究竟。

之后我们再往车后看，发现是一辆丰田爵士。驾驶者是一位约五十来岁的红毛先生。他怒冲冲，气呼呼的从车子走出，并大声地责骂我们。说我们并没有理由把车子停放在那，这起车祸都是我们的错。我们试着解释，可是他却不愿意听进脑。他的英语程度也不太好。最后，他便打了通电话给他的女儿。

当她的女儿到达时，听了她的父亲的解释，再转身听听我们的解释。之后，他边看了看两辆汽车，便说“我知道是我父亲的错。请原谅他的大哄大叫，应为这是波斯尼亚解决车祸的方式！”

可是，她的父亲却很不干心，继续指责我们， 经管他的孩子已经解释数百遍！他还走到路中央，比手画脚的大喊。有好几次，他差一点就引起了另一场车祸。

交换了个人资料，我们把车子开到了附近的油站，想把排气管 勾回原位。车后防撞器 已变成了花猫，还凹了进去。搞定了排气管, 我们继续往小台北购物。

后语：我和美玉都有whiplash，也就是安全带所造成的肌肉酸疼。我的头不能够完整的向最右边或左边转，抬头也会痛，肩膀偶尔有点麻痹。医生说看起来不大碍，这是车祸最普遍的伤。可是，要观察一个星期，若还没复原，就要回去复诊。

希望这小小的意外，已经把更大的灾难或祸害给挡住/解了。让我们都平平安安，建健康康的度过这一年。