Friday, March 6, 2009

2 in one day.... & 112

Two posts in one day...... wow I am doing well...lol
Just needed to pop in and say it is amazing how one's day turns out....

Today while I was driving into town to help cut out the blocks for the quilt we are making for the bushfire survivors, on a road I have travelled many, many times over the years and have always known the bad spots and bumps in the road.... today for some reason I was going a lot slower than normal.... not sure why but I was....
I only had Nikayla in the back thankfully but not in her normal car seat (which is definitely going back in the car tomorrow when it dries before I go anywhere else).......
Within a split second as I was meeting a couple of cars on a bend the back car all of a sudden spun around a few times and started travelling backwards across the road toward me...... it seemed to happen in slow motion and seemed so unreal but real at the same time...... the car continued to come backwards towards me....... not sure whether it was my slower speed or just good luck but the car missed me by just millimetres if that and slammed into the bracken and trees on the side of the road..........
I just sat there for I don't know how long....stunned.... unsure on what had just happened and what I was going to find.. I was shaking like a leaf..... I told Nikayla to stay put, put my hazards on, as we were on the bend and cars seem to fly around the corner and with the long weekend and the folk festival this weekend there is extra traffic on the road, then I went to see if the person in the car was okay..
she was thankfully getting out as I approached and surprisingly was quite calm and level headed..... I on the other hand was shaking so much I had dropped my mobile and the back and battery had fallen out......duh.. I had always thought myself to be quite calm and capable of handling a situation but today I found out differently... the lady was in her mid 60s approximately and didnt get flustered at all.... she calmly told me she had no mobile service so couldn't ring anyone and as she had travelled from the top of the state to almost the bottom she was alone..... stupid me stumbled around looking for our local police phone number..... ended up ringing hubby to come and help...lol this lady on the other hand had the ability to remember a number she had been told earlier for an emergency if you have no mobile service.... it was 112....... and it worked..... I had never heard of this before... you just dial 112 and you are put through to emergency......000 I think ... whilst she was doing this quiet a number of cars sped past us.... we were not a metre off the roadside and only 1 or 2 slowed down or stopped........unbelievable......
hey we are out in the country here and we help out each other when in trouble but today the traffic was not local...... so the few that did stop briefly didn't even ask if we were okay but just drove off...... after I checked the lady was okay and not hurt I moved my car to the other side of the road which just happens to be our local fire shed so it was safe and then went back and checked on the lady..... we both looked at where she had come from and how lucky she had been.... she missed by mere millimetres 2 road signs and a power pole and me....... the skid marks all tell the story......how she managed to thread her way between without hitting anything is unreal and all going backwards... she did manage to take out the small telstra phone cable thingy though which only left a small dent in her front bumper...... the only damage the car sustained apart from the accumulation of a lot of bracken underneath her car and a few scratches.....couldn't believe it.... the bracken she hit first must have softened her impact and probably saved her.. my DH and another local friend came to the rescue and managed to pull her out whilst I slowed oncoming traffic and warned them as DH had to pull the car out across the road..... needless to say our local police never turned up but police from the next town turned up after we had pulled her car out and they just made sure we were all okay, took statements and questioned her and as it was purely an accident let us go on our way....
I do hope that this lady is okay tonight and not suffering any after effects.. I hope she enjoys her weekend at the folkie festival and doesn't dwell on what happened today..
I know she was just starting to consider all the what ifs just before the police arrived... as she said it just happened so quickly for her..it was in no way her fault........ all she did was get out in the gravel on the side of the road slightly on the bend and that was all it took for her car to spin around... she wasn't speeding, she just hit the gravel verge at a bad point in the bend and that was it......it can be a tricky bend but as I have been travelling it forever I guess I know the road and its faults and maybe take it for granted but not anymore..........

I have learnt two things today...
firstly is that it only takes a split second and things can change dramatically.. it could have so easily been much worse today but wasn't.............
and secondly and one that I will remember and I really think should be public knowledge and should be advertised or even pre keyed into mobile phones and that is the number 112 for in an emergency when you have no mobile service........ this knowledge could possibly help save someone else's life in the future.. who knows.......

Hug the ones you love and tell them so...
take care.

2 comments:

Cath Ü said...

Thank goodness all involved are safe...
Cath Ü

Khris said...

Thats one very lucky lady. Life can deal us some surprises along the way thats for sure..hugs Khris