Wednesday 22 April 2009

The Accident


Now being an unconfident driver, I really dreaded to be in this situation; but inevitably it did happen.

I sat there, slightly bemused in what actually happened. My instructor looked at me horrified, shaking me to check if I was actually still animate. ‘That was not your fault,’ he kept telling me and I replied with a splutter ‘what the, huh?’

It was an ordinary day, the fact that it was sunny may have been less ordinary, but what seemed to be a nice urban drive turned out to be quite different. I stopped at a junction behind the traffic lights, awaiting and preparing for the green beam. Being on the left hand lane was the correct position to go straight or so I am told by my instructor, and that the right hand lane was for those turning right.

So of course the predictable thing happened to me. Stalling at the traffic lights, getting to biting point became customary to my driving. I tried not to panic, despite the various horning behind me, and noticing that the driver behind me was reading a newspaper anyway. I set off finally over the steep hill ahead, unprepared for what was about to happen.

A large impatient supermarket truck decided to overtake from the right-hand lane, regardless of the fact that the hill had only one lane and incoming traffic. Now, this was the clincher. It smashed the side of the driver-side, (yes the side I happened to be on). The outcome: several scratches, a broken wing mirror and an enormous inward dent on the car body and my confidence.

Hilariously, an angry truck driver ran towards the evident learner car shouting abuse. My instructor reassured me, ‘this is not your fault.’ I adjusted slowly to realise he was right, I was a learner and stalling was a natural process. His reason for overtaking, ‘you were taking too long.’

I was happy to have my lesson cut short as my instructor drove me home. Will I ever get back into the driver’s seat? Not for a while I think.

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