it was just last saturday, the night before my flight back to davao. i hailed a taxi at project 6, sat at the front seat, and went on my way back to the office in makati. first thing i noticed was that the driver was driving pretty fast on a rainy night.
i wasn't that alarmed, but was thinking he was a wee bit daring on a slippery road. anyway, a few minutes later, the friggin' taxi slammed right into the rear of a parked dump truck at full speed at the corner of east avenue and EDSA.
good thing i was watching the road and had my seat belt on (to think that i'm not very consistent in using the seatbelt at all times). anyway, i saw the rear of the dump truck loom large before my eyes before i managed to brace myself for the impact. and then BOOM! windshield shattering all around me, my chest slamming against the seatbelt with sufficient force to blow the air out of my lungs.
damn, it hurt. i was moaning a few seconds later before i blurted out to the driver "You son of a bitch, you were driving too fast!"
i was so fuckin angry, and then i turned to my left and saw him slumped over, with blood trickling down his head, and felt sorry for the idiot.
it took only a few minutes for the traffic enforcers and an ambulance to arrive cuz we were at a major intersection. by that time, i was already up and walking around talking to a friend of mine on my cellphone (which by the way, flew right out the windshield. Good thing i was able to find the damn phone and that it still worked).
anyway, i felt fine and hardly felt the pain in my chest and neck (adrenaline rush was still kicking in). i went to east avenue med center just a few seconds away to get an x-ray and a few hours later the doc told me i was ok, no internal injuries to be worried about, and i was able to catch my early morning flight out to davao. the driver, on the other hand, was obviously drunk, and dazed from the crash. he had blood all over him. the medics found blood on my face, shirt and pants but upon later inspection it was concluded that it was the driver's blood, not mine.
i felt , and am still feeling, like a total wreck. i have difficulty breathing deeply and my shoulders and neck are strained. but, it's all good. the experience was, i admit, morbidly exciting. nothing like a good old-fashioned vehicular accident to add some spice into my life.
oh, and i witnessed a fellow human being die right in front of me in the emergency ward that night. he had several injuries, including a bullet wound, undoubtedly a police salvage victim whose execution went awry, cuz he was still breathing when he should be very dead instead. he was probably able to escape his executioners by jumping off a high place or from a moving vehicle (the other injuries were consistent with those scenarios) but not before getting a bullet in his gut.
oh well, if there's one thing i learned out of all this - you can lose your life just like that. if i didn't have my seatbelt on, i'd be in a morgue at an ill-operated government hospital, right next to the salvage victim who had a a piece of paper taped to his chest - MR. X, 8/6/06, 1:15 AM.
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