A Public Service Announcement from Aunty and a Friend   6/21/2005 - 838 views, 1 Comment

Summary: This almost reads like one of those urban legends which you forward to a friend. Only it isn't. It really happened, to a friend of Aunty's, just last night. So he, and Aunty, would like to remind you: Don't Speed You've seen ...

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This almost reads like one of those urban legends which you forward to a friend. Only it isn’t. It really happened, to a friend of Aunty’s, just last night. So he, and Aunty, would like to remind you:

Don’t Speed

You’ve seen it on the crazy cop shows.
You’ve heard it on the radio.
You’ve even read about it, in the newspaper.

But I bet you’ve never seen a car hurtle
at you on a dark, windy, rainy night –
that too when you’re on a highway and the
only traffic you’re supposed to see is
traffic alongside you.

This car was headed towards me and my wife.

Yes, on the wrong side of the road.
Yes,on the highway.
Yes, close to midnight, when there’s almost
no traffic and everyone’s pretty much clipping
the speed limit.

Last night, I was driving at about 15kph below the
speed limit. It gave me a fraction of a second.
A fraction to actually see the car hurtling
towards us.

The car had no headlights. It was in the middle lane,
not on the side lanes. And I can’t say how fast
it was headed towards me. My instinct took over.

I swerved.

I missed the oncoming car by a few feet.
A fraction of a second faster and we’d have
hit the car head on. At 85kph. Or 95kph. Or 109kph.
Or whatever speed we would have chosen to be at.

Who knows what might have happened next?

It’s only conjecture. But I did get an instant
lesson in those few seconds after we didn’t
crash.

1) Write your will. Right away.
2) You can’t hug family and friends too much.
3) Keep BELOW the speed limit. It gives you
a fraction of a second more.

That fraction probably saved our lives.

Life is short. Take it easy.

Sean

Shortly after sharing this with us, Sean followed it up with this URL - it seems that one of the cars behind him wasn’t so lucky:

Driver Goes West On East Lane Motorway

Sean is absolutely right, life is too short.

Unless you have nobody in your life whom you love - nobody who loves you - then nothing is worth the few minutes you save compared to the risks you take when you drive recklessly, or too quickly.

Think about it.

Kissy kissy,

Aunty Spam

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1 Comment »

  1. It happens. It happened to me. Twice….
    Once upon a time, I was a cab driver here in Miami. I generally drove at night,due to the heat. Now downtown Miami,like many city cores,has some confusing on and off ramps. It’s easy to hit a couple of the entrances/exits to I-95. What’s not so easy to explain is these two moron’s reaction…
    Now, gentle reader, imagine what you’d do if you were to find yourself going south in the north bound lanes. One hopes you wouldn’t do what these two, yes two,seperate times,cars,even years, did. Namely,hit the gas.
    I was considerably luckier than Dear Aunty’s friend. I was on the other side of the road both times.
    Don’t just drive carefully. Drive like they’re trying to kill you.

    Comment by Christopher W. — 6/25/2005 @ 6:09 am

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