While we were looking at the other way to make a U-turn, there were two yellow lights rushing towards us! And then COLLISION...
March 12, 2011 started out as a normal day for me. Since I came from a meeting last Friday, I came home late. Although I would have liked to have a belly full of beer, I settled with dinner with friends and a belly full of laughter. So going back. I got home late. Slept in the wee hours of the morning with the thought of going to DLSU-D to eat Stromboli. I know I have been announcing how much I miss that oh so good food that is actually a Hawaian pizza that is folded to form a bread with tomato sauce, cheese, pineapple, and ground pork. (OMG, I just started salivating hahahahhaa)
Another thing happening was the canvassing of votes for the DLSU-D’s college student councils and university student council. Of course, being a council officer before, it was another good reason to visit. I met up with a good friend of mine, Keka with her baby(which also happen to be my god child) and her youngest sister. We were off to DLSU-D by around 2pm and got there after an hour. We met up with our friends chit chat and heard news for this and that. Then went to the square canteen hurriedly might I say(hehe). When we got to the stall that sells Stromboli, they say it’s all out! I almost died. hahahaha. Just kidding. The good this was there was two orders of baked mac left. This particular baked mac is also good. So I just got settled for it. Slowly eating to savour each bite. After eating we went back to our friends to monitor the canvassing of vote. We were already doing good though not perfectly good as we would have wanted it. For 11 years in the running our party was a source of leaders for our university. 11 years!
From a college building we moved to the College of Business Administration (Home of Achievers! J ) to break the ice and for a bit of enjoyment. I had fun memories of that lobby. I did my first ever fashion show of business attire there, plus a lot of fun and enjoyable memories as well. Everyone was having a good time. There was food. There were discussions and stories to be shared about what has happened in the school over the past year, the campaign period and so on and so forth. The counting was put on hold since there was a curfew already within the university by 9:00 pm to be resumed by Monday. We ran out of food during and our stomachs were asking for a bit of attention already so we headed for a 24 hour burger and tapsilog joint Countryside at Villa Nicasia, which I called home for 4 years and a half of my college life. I remember that that particular place was formerly a Burger Machine joint. Much has changed already. Rumour has it that there will be a Starbucks opening soon also. Progress sometimes happen very fast. At least I was updated.
After getting our fill, we were off all 11 of us.7 will be riding in the car going north. 3 will travel by motorcycle going further south. We said our goodbyes and our “ingats” to each other. I was in the car. We were laughing and sharing stories still in the car until we reached Imus where 3 from our group would be dropped off. Since there was an infant in that group we made a you turn to drop the off the other side. Another round of good byes again and “ingat”. I moved to the front passenger side and we were off. I recall thinking twice to wear the seatbelt but didn’t bother. Then we assisted our friend to make a U turn. Since this was a highway we needed to do proceed with caution since jeepneys, trucks and private cars were whizzing with great speeds. We made a signal to turn left. A jeepney slowed to a stop to give way for us in the two laned highway and we proceeded again with caution. We were about to complete the left turn when all of a sudden, two yellow headlights suddenly approached us with great speed. And then collision.
I remember seeing the light then closed my eyes for the impact and holding on to the driver, Mahal. I heard someone saying “Break! Break!” but is was nearly impossible since we were just hit at the driver side. The impact was strong that the car was moved a few meters from the point of collision. Mahal was able to step on the breaks a few seconds later and i looked at every one in the vehicle. Everyone was OK. I asked Mahal if she was ok but she wasn’t but is conscious and can talk. I got out of the car to look at the damage. It was big! I asked her again, she said she’s stuck and her head hurts. The rest of the people with us in the car got out also. Keka was also there since she saw the whole thing.
The good thing was we were right in front of the mall where security guards we patrolling. There was a guard saying that they have contacted the police already and is asking if they would contact an ambulance to. I said yes. Since Filipinos were innately inquisitive(a more nicer word than “nosy”), people were asking us if we were OK. We needed to get Mahal out of the car first. She asked me to call her parent which I did. I told them that she was safe and request that they come soon. She was able to move herself and step out of the car. She was OK. A sigh of relief issued. The next thing was to deal with everything. We call our friends who lived nearby who turned up quickly to assist us. The jeepney collided with the mall’s plant box. Apparently all of the passengers were also safe. Gene, another co-passenger, was already in a heated argument with a stupid motorcyclist claiming that our car was about to run him over and yadahyadahyadah.. IRRELEVANT! We were the one who got hit and he had the nerve to blame us and yet there was no damage to him! GRRR.. The jeepney driver was also saying that we came out of nowhere and so on and so forth. INCORRECT! And we can prove it (I guess our political party also prepared us for that kind of arguments). The police came and dismissed the stupid motorcyclist and made sketches of the area then called in for a tow truck to tow the jeep. The car was still functioning. Both of the cars were brought to the police station.
Mahal and I got to the police station via the tow truck. I rode at the back with all the chains. While travelling, I was checking myself. I was intact but had a manageable pain in my head and probably from the impact. But was OK. I kinda laughed a bit since I was OK. A bit loony right? The rest of our group got to the police station by the car. Keka’s baby and youngest sister were picked up by her mom while we were still at the mall. The rest of the group got to the police station and met up with everyone who came. Mahal made her statements and was interrogated by the police with the jeepney driver. We hanged out in the vicinity of the police station and shared our stories. Waited for the investigation to finish then went to our respective homes.
Having calmed down while waiting for the investigation to finish, I realized something. You can’t see your whole life in a flash when you are about to have an accident. I didn’t. I just saw two yellow head lights and got stuck like a deer in head lights waiting to get hit. I guess you can’t do much at that point. You can just brace yourself for the impact and wish that everything would be OK. That is just what you can do. Another thing I realized, that if it is your time to die, you can’t do anything at all. Having seen the car damage, I can say we have some lucky star or a number of guardian angels looking over us! And thank God for that! I still need to do my purpose in life still although I haven’t figured it out yet.
Since I am not the type of person who dwells well in to the negative, I would just say this: “Sh*t happens each and every day. We just have to go and deal with it the best way we can.”
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