During my long career as a driver, I was involved in only two
accidents. They were not accidents in the true sense of the word. They were
more of road mishaps and they caused minimal injury and damage. Perhaps I would
have considered them inconsequential and not worth writing about if it was not
for the reason that they both involved that moody girl, “Victor”. Both of them
also happened within the first three months of my being hired.
The first accident occurred on Christmas Eve of 1999. I had been working for slightly more than a month and was asked to take one of the company staff members to the city centre. She wanted to buy some personal items for Christmas and we went to a street in Nairobi known as Moi Avenue. I was very tired and sleepy as I had just worked overnight. I stopped at the shop she wanted to go into and she walked in. I was particularly grumpy that morning and couldn’t wait to drop her back at the office and go home. I decided to make a U-turn while she was still in the shop so that we could just drive off as soon as she came out. I checked in my side mirror and the road was clear so I swung the car round onto the middle of the road. Previously, I had only heard of a rear view mirror blind spot from other people. It was my turn to experience the danger it can pose.
I heard loud hooting and the screeching of tires as an oncoming car tried to avoid hitting me. I applied emergency brakes just as Victor was positioned straight across the road. The other car swerved just in time to miss my door, and then swerved back again to avoid hitting other cars parked on the side of the street. Victor could only manage to inflict light damage in the form of one long scratch on the side of the other car right up to the rear wheel. If this was how Victor behaved on the open road, then it was apparent why she had those scratches on the corners of her bumpers that I had noticed when I first inspected her.
The driver of the other car and his passengers were not going to let me get off easily as I was clearly on the wrong. They were inciting each other to extort money from me to pay for the damage to their car. I was angry at their taking advantage of my misfortune. I was also scared because there were five of them against me – I was alone as my colleague had come out but was keeping a safe distance to let me take the fall alone. It was unnerving to see a crowd starting to form as usually happens in Nairobi when an accident happens. These crowds have been known to rob accident victims and vandalize their vehicles. I had to decide fast or have the situation escalate to unmanageable levels. My “victims” were demanding two thousand shillings. It was the only money I had in my pocket. The only problem was that it was not my money. It was company money which I had collected through the shift and was supposed to submit before I left for home.
I had no option but to pay the money. I picked my passenger, and went back to the office. I explained that I didn’t have any money in cash as I had used up all I had to pay for the damage I had caused. The supervisor would hear none of it. I would have to pay that money to the company or consider myself jobless. We broke for Christmas – A dark Christmas indeed it was – and I had to think of where to get the money from. I had not accumulated a single coin in savings and I was in a fix. I shared my dilemma with some friends in the village and they came to my aid. Each gave me a loan of one thousand shillings. I was elated when I went back to work in the New Year and was given back the keys to Victor.
About one month after reporting back, I had my second accident. I was driving through a Nairobi slum known as Kangemi just after having dropped a client. Kangemi is a place which had, and still has so many people that even walking through the throngs was a problem. Driving in Kangemi was a nerve-wracking experience because you literally had to push your way through the mass of humanity. I was inching my way forward slowly as people moved out of the way hesitantly and crowded back into the road as soon as I passed. I noticed a young man crossing in front of me as I approached. I never expected him to turn around and attempt to cross back again, but he did. By the time I stopped, I had hit him.
There were screams from the guy I had hit, and also from onlookers. A huge crowd quickly gathered and I didn’t know whether to protect the car, attend to the injured man, or deal with the crowd. The guy was writhing in pain but most of the people in the crowd were baying for my blood. They were listing the number of people who had been hit by vehicles in the area recently, and blaming it careless drivers like me. My heart was pounding like a drum. I was terrified and didn’t know what to do. I thought my end had finally come.
A young guy came out from the crowd and everybody seemed to respect him by the way they let him pass and listened to him. He advised me to take the guy I had hit to a doctor and he offered to accompany me. This seemed to appease the crowd who would not have wanted me to leave with the injured man alone. They claimed that people had previously left with those that they have hit purportedly to take them to hospital, only to dump them some roadside to die. I took the guy to a small local clinic where the doctor diagnosed him to be having soft tissue injuries but no fractures. I parted with four hundred shillings for the treatment, and I also had to drop him at his house. The guy who had assisted me did not ask for any money. He just wanted to help, which I found to be a rare quality in such an area.
I had already reported the incident to the office but by the time I got back, the supervisor was frantic. This was because I had conveyed the wrong information due to the incorrect use of the radio call. The radio call microphone has a button which one is supposed to keep pressed when talking. We were always advised to press the button fully for two seconds before starting to talk. This was meant to ensure that the full statement was conveyed. New users however, always pressed and talked simultaneously causing the first part of the statement to be cut off. This was the same thing I had done when I was asked by the radio operator if the person was badly injured. I answered in Kiswahili, “sio sana”, meaning not badly. However, having inadvertently cut off the first word from the communication, it came out as, “….sana”, meaning very badly. The supervisor had imagined that he would be dealing with a case of causing death by dangerous driving.
The first accident occurred on Christmas Eve of 1999. I had been working for slightly more than a month and was asked to take one of the company staff members to the city centre. She wanted to buy some personal items for Christmas and we went to a street in Nairobi known as Moi Avenue. I was very tired and sleepy as I had just worked overnight. I stopped at the shop she wanted to go into and she walked in. I was particularly grumpy that morning and couldn’t wait to drop her back at the office and go home. I decided to make a U-turn while she was still in the shop so that we could just drive off as soon as she came out. I checked in my side mirror and the road was clear so I swung the car round onto the middle of the road. Previously, I had only heard of a rear view mirror blind spot from other people. It was my turn to experience the danger it can pose.
I heard loud hooting and the screeching of tires as an oncoming car tried to avoid hitting me. I applied emergency brakes just as Victor was positioned straight across the road. The other car swerved just in time to miss my door, and then swerved back again to avoid hitting other cars parked on the side of the street. Victor could only manage to inflict light damage in the form of one long scratch on the side of the other car right up to the rear wheel. If this was how Victor behaved on the open road, then it was apparent why she had those scratches on the corners of her bumpers that I had noticed when I first inspected her.
The driver of the other car and his passengers were not going to let me get off easily as I was clearly on the wrong. They were inciting each other to extort money from me to pay for the damage to their car. I was angry at their taking advantage of my misfortune. I was also scared because there were five of them against me – I was alone as my colleague had come out but was keeping a safe distance to let me take the fall alone. It was unnerving to see a crowd starting to form as usually happens in Nairobi when an accident happens. These crowds have been known to rob accident victims and vandalize their vehicles. I had to decide fast or have the situation escalate to unmanageable levels. My “victims” were demanding two thousand shillings. It was the only money I had in my pocket. The only problem was that it was not my money. It was company money which I had collected through the shift and was supposed to submit before I left for home.
I had no option but to pay the money. I picked my passenger, and went back to the office. I explained that I didn’t have any money in cash as I had used up all I had to pay for the damage I had caused. The supervisor would hear none of it. I would have to pay that money to the company or consider myself jobless. We broke for Christmas – A dark Christmas indeed it was – and I had to think of where to get the money from. I had not accumulated a single coin in savings and I was in a fix. I shared my dilemma with some friends in the village and they came to my aid. Each gave me a loan of one thousand shillings. I was elated when I went back to work in the New Year and was given back the keys to Victor.
About one month after reporting back, I had my second accident. I was driving through a Nairobi slum known as Kangemi just after having dropped a client. Kangemi is a place which had, and still has so many people that even walking through the throngs was a problem. Driving in Kangemi was a nerve-wracking experience because you literally had to push your way through the mass of humanity. I was inching my way forward slowly as people moved out of the way hesitantly and crowded back into the road as soon as I passed. I noticed a young man crossing in front of me as I approached. I never expected him to turn around and attempt to cross back again, but he did. By the time I stopped, I had hit him.
There were screams from the guy I had hit, and also from onlookers. A huge crowd quickly gathered and I didn’t know whether to protect the car, attend to the injured man, or deal with the crowd. The guy was writhing in pain but most of the people in the crowd were baying for my blood. They were listing the number of people who had been hit by vehicles in the area recently, and blaming it careless drivers like me. My heart was pounding like a drum. I was terrified and didn’t know what to do. I thought my end had finally come.
A young guy came out from the crowd and everybody seemed to respect him by the way they let him pass and listened to him. He advised me to take the guy I had hit to a doctor and he offered to accompany me. This seemed to appease the crowd who would not have wanted me to leave with the injured man alone. They claimed that people had previously left with those that they have hit purportedly to take them to hospital, only to dump them some roadside to die. I took the guy to a small local clinic where the doctor diagnosed him to be having soft tissue injuries but no fractures. I parted with four hundred shillings for the treatment, and I also had to drop him at his house. The guy who had assisted me did not ask for any money. He just wanted to help, which I found to be a rare quality in such an area.
I had already reported the incident to the office but by the time I got back, the supervisor was frantic. This was because I had conveyed the wrong information due to the incorrect use of the radio call. The radio call microphone has a button which one is supposed to keep pressed when talking. We were always advised to press the button fully for two seconds before starting to talk. This was meant to ensure that the full statement was conveyed. New users however, always pressed and talked simultaneously causing the first part of the statement to be cut off. This was the same thing I had done when I was asked by the radio operator if the person was badly injured. I answered in Kiswahili, “sio sana”, meaning not badly. However, having inadvertently cut off the first word from the communication, it came out as, “….sana”, meaning very badly. The supervisor had imagined that he would be dealing with a case of causing death by dangerous driving.
No comments:
Post a Comment