Totalled

A day that's never forgotten

In utter shock and absolute panic, I opened my eyes with an inflated airbag against my face and chest, along with an unconscious friend of mine lying against me. I checked for a pulse and when I found it, I gently shoved my buddy back into his seat. My two other friends in the back were screaming out of shock and before I even stepped out of the car, emergency services had arrived accompanied with insurance claim executives, circling the car like vultures, hoping to tow away my ride and pick up some pocket change. What had just happened…? Difficult it was for me to catch my breath, I compressed the airbag of which was still inflated in my face and looked to my right, in total disbelief, my car had wrapped itself around a tree. This is a day that I’ll never ever forget.

            After a few snoozes, the third annoying buzz of my alarm pinging off the speakers of my phone woke me up as I sat on the edge of my bed. It was the start of another routine morning with the rest going rather differently. I turned off the airplane mode on my iPhone and scrolled through my Instagram and other social media notifications. Little did I know, with all that scrolling through my phone, I was late for work! I dashed right into the shower and got myself ready for work. Hectically, I shampooed myself whilst brushing my teeth as I was already running behind schedule. Running down a flight of stairs, I whipped up a cup of coffee and slid into my Pearl White Honda City.

With music blasting and a cigarette snugged in between my fingers, with the windows rolled down, I was on my way to work. I drove into my reserved parking lot and as I stepped into office, I was greeted by the echoing noises of breath-taking exhaust notes from a few stunning cars that have just parked outside, turns out, they were my clients for the day. Hours flew by as I sat in the room of my office, chatting with my clients about their rides whilst typing email after email and before I knew it, I had my work done way before my working hours were done! After a quick tea, I sped home, again with music blasting and another puff of a cigarette. Weaving in and out of traffic, cutting cars left and right, I reached home in a mere five minutes at 4:30pm despite my office being about 5 kilometres away. Greeted through the door by my mom, she asked me how was my day and well, I told her that it was like any other day at work. With the odours of cigarette smoke filling up the living room, my mom gave out a subtle cringe before telling me that I should grab a shower. Just before I ran up the stairs for my second shower of the day, my mom asked, “What are your plans for tonight, Brennell?” and I simply told her that Cheryl whom is a close friend of mine was migrating to Australia the following day and as such, I and another three other friends were going to have a bit of fun with her, giving her a worthy farewell. With a smile, my mom nodded and I was off to the bathroom.

Drying myself up after my shower, I jumped into bed and texted Cheryl, telling her that I would be seeing her at about 7pm along with two other friends, Audrey and Dicky. After rising from a short nap, I got myself ready and left my bedroom, running down the stairs and getting into my car. Before I powered up my car, my mom said, “Drive Safe Bren!” and I nodded with a smile. Little did we know at the time, my car was not coming home. Cheryl lives about 4 kilometers away and with evening traffic slowly piling up on the roads, in my typical fashion, I sped to Cheryl, yet again weaving in and out of traffic. Arriving at Cheryl’s place, she smelt the smoke off the brakes of my car and instantly knew that I was pushing both my car and my skills to the limit but she was cool with it, as all my friends are as well. They know that my job is involved with the automotive industry and naturally, all my buddies have experienced my driving skills that I’ve honed over time.

We met up with our remaining two buddies for dinner and had an enjoyable conversation. Over the conversation, they all stated how they envied my job, especially as I’m able to drive and work on the finest cars in the industry, not to mention driving them as well. Audrey said, “With the cars you work with and drive, I can see why you drive so darn well!”. Another hour had gone by before we called for the bill of the table and decided that the night was still young! We were all keen on having a drink at a bar nearby. Though the bar we were heading to was only a kilometre away and should take less than five minutes to drive there, Cheryl suggested that we took the long way around, so that everyone could hop in my car for a drive around the area and that was when everything took a turn for the worst.

A slight drizzle began to ensue but to us it was of no concern as everyone trusted me and my ability to drive brilliantly. Corner after corner, I was pushing both my car and my skills to the ragged edge! Drifting corner to corner, weaving in and out of traffic and sliding left and right through each and every bend I could find. The drive was coming to an end as we were reaching our destination. All of a sudden, a car overtook me in an effort to pull an illegal U-turn in front of us and I had to immediately manoeuvre my car to avoid the vehicle. In a blink of an eye in less than two seconds or so, my car had crashed into a tree!

The driver’s side of the car had rammed into a thick, hard tree trunk and I could feel my chest I pain as the driver’s side door collapsed into the side of my ribcage. I then compress the inflated airbag in front of me and begin to check on the other friends in my car. Apart from a few scratches and bruises, they were completely fine. My car on the other hand, was extremely badly wrecked, so bad that I was forced to bust my driver’s window open and climb out of the car. When I was out of the wreckage, I glanced at my car and was brought to tears. After looking at the wreckage, I knew that there was simply no way of driving home in my car and as such, I had to reluctantly call my parents.

Having heard all that I had to say on the phone, they sped to me and arrived in mere minutes. They arrived filled with anger and rage, feeling disappointed that I had totalled a car that they trusted me with. However, after talking to them for a moment, and having known of my injuries and the possible injuries of my other friends, my parents began to calm down and requested our insurance company to dispatch a tow truck to our location. Whilst waiting for the tow truck, my parents conversed with Cheryl and Dicky’s parents, apologising to them for my mistake but fortunately, they were absolutely fine with everything as their kids were almost unscathed.

            Upon having my car collected by our insurance company’s tow truck, Cheryl and Dicky left with their respective parents while my parents brought Audrey and I to the hospital for an X-ray, to confirm that we were completely fine but on route to the medical centre, I blacked out, losing my consciousness. Seated in the rear passenger seat in my father’s metallic grey BMW 3-Series, he slammed his foot on the floor and sped as fast as he could to the hospital.

           Once there, my parents rushed Audrey and I into the emergency ward and the doctors had an X-Ray done on Audrey and I. Audrey had nothing but scratches and minor bruises, I on the other hand, had a broken rib that had pierced my right lung! Apparently, the doctors weren’t surprised that I had not felt the pain or effects of the injury as the shock and adrenaline from the accident may have camouflaged the pain. The doctors had me rushed into the operating room to fix me up as fast as they could. Three hours later, the doctors had completed their surgeries on me and placed me in the Intensive Care Unit ward to ensure that I was closely observed.

About two weeks later, I was discharged from the hospital and  have now acknowledged how valuable life truly is. In all but a blink of an eye, everything could be taken away and this is made even easier when you’re speeding away, corner to corner in a vehicle. A slight mishap or mistake accompanied by a flash of overconfidence could have put all of us six feet under but miraculously, given the damage and despite my injuries, we survived. This is a moment that I’ll never forget, deflating the airbag, climbing out of my car to discover that my ride was nearly unrecognizable with shock and awe flooding my mind.