Road Kisser

I just came over from Raden's blog and read her post on the many firsts in her life. No I am not about to write about it coz she has done it already. Maybe next time. What I would like to write this time is about the accidents I had in my 51 years.

The 1st time ever I was involved in an accident was when I was in standard 1. I was on my way for Quran class about 2 miles away. Traffic then was relatively safer. While crossing the road, I suddenly felt dizzy and stopped. The next thing I remembered was getting up in a pool of black oil. A motorbike hit me and I landed into a pool of black oil from a mechanic workshop. I wasn't badly hurt, only slightly bruised but took advantage of the incident to skip Quran class that day.

My next accident was when I was in college. As I was riding my brand new 1 month old Honda Cup at about 12.30 midnight along Tiger Lane Ipoh, I suddenly saw a big dog in the middle of the road. I had no time to avoid the dog. I hit it and was sent flying quite a distance away. I got up ran to my bike to see if it could start. I did not care if I was wounded or not. My bike was more important. I started the bike and it obliged. I looked for my sandals but couldn't find it. I rode home barefooted leaving a dead big dog on the road. I was bruised in quite a few places but nothing very serious.

Then the same year back in Bukit Mertajam, my hometown, I was riding my bike with a friend riding pillion. Suddenly I asked him to move a bit coz I wanted to spit. As I turned to spit, I suddenly blacked out. When I opened my eyes I was about 200 meters away from the place I had wanted to spit. I was hurt quite bad, bleeding in the elbow and lips and my friend was hurt as much.

I was riding in Old Town Ipoh heading towards New Town. I was racing with my friend when all of a sudden a FIAT 600 or was it 500, infront of me turned to the left. I braked but it was too late, I hit the front passenger door and went sprawling on the road. The lady driver came out and started shouting that it was my fault. Then she saw the damage to her car and she was shouting even more. I started the bike and sped away bruised.

I was on my way back from BM to Ipoh carrying my friend. As we reached Tasek and I was taking a corner, the back tyre suddenly skidded and both of us were on the road. I was stuck under the bike. My friend freed himself and he didn't lift the bike off me, he went for our bags in the middle of the road with me shouting at him to free me first. Again I was a little bit bruised.

I had my worst motorbike accident in Kelantan. I was carrying a friend on his Yamaha RXZ. We were on our way from KB back to Pasir Puteh. Of course I was speeding. As we reached Melor I saw a bike giving the left signal but it went right to the side of the road and stopped. I thought he had given the wrong signal so continued when he suddenly swerved to the right. I slammed the brakes and the bike skidded to the left. I hit the back of the bike and tumbled on the road. My friend, the owner of the bike, flew about twenty feet away. We were both quite badly hurt and the bike was quite damaged. When we got up, the bikes were no more on the road. Someone had pushed the bikes behind a shop. We dared not try to act tough coz we were in their territory. I settled by giving them 10 bucks and immediately our bikes were released. In fact one of the people got some minyak angin and messaged my hand.

This one is the mother of all accidents. It was in 79, and we were going home for Hari Raya. My friend from Melaka decided to drive and 4 of us decided to hitch a lift. The journey started badly. As we left the house and was about a quarter of a mile away, one of my friends realised that he had left his bag on the car. We stopped but the bag was not there. In the bag was RM700 that my friend saved from his arrears for Hari Raya.

A friend and I promised to pay for his fare from KL and also to sponsor his makan that night. As we reached Karak, suddenly this driver of ours stopped and said that he is tired and asked another friend who had only recently passed his driving test to drive. Boy was he excited. I sat in front and he continued the drive in the dark of the night. As we reached Gombak there was a bend. My friend who could be sleepy and not familiar with the road shouted when he suddenly saw a house in front. I saw it too. He swerved. There was a monsoon drain in front of us and a steel lamp post. He couldn't negotiate the corner and I could see the the lamp post racing towards me. I could only think of saving my eyes. I crossed my hands across my face covering my eyes and then there was the mother of all bangs. With the seat belt fastened real tired I was still thrown forward, ripping the tracksuit covering my hands and cutting me in my right hand. The driver hit his nose against the steering and bled. The others sleeping behing were thrown forward but were not hurt. I couldn't open the door and had to crawl out through the driver's door. We were all shook up and speechless for a long time.

After this I had another mishap on my bike in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. I hit a car turning left. I was a bit hurt. I have since steered clear of accidents by being very carefull whenever I drive and ride my motorbike.