My Baby is Scarred!

I take a quick break from my tag debts to recount the sad tale of how my baby received a scar on Monday.

I was driving to work on a dull, dreary Monday morning like I do every Monday morning, muttering and grumbling inside my head about how I didn't want to go to work. As I was coming down the downward slope of the flyover at Makro (Taman Midah) that was where it happened. (Somehow me and Jalan Cheras seem to be at odds with one another - I had my first accident EVER just two months back on a different stretch of road, also in the morning as I drove to work.) I was travelling about 50km/ph on the middle lane and preparing to slow down since there was traffic to be sighted ahead when this big black Mercedes (I didn't catch the number! Dang!) decided that he needed to swing out into the middle lane from the fast lane, where the traffic had already stopped (the middle lane was still moving, albeit at a slower speed). At this point of time my car is less than 100m away and still going at around 35-40km/ph. No sooner than he thought he'd cut out, the Mercedes driver matched action to thought and CUT into the middle lane, forcing me to slam on the brakes just so I didn't end up piling into the side and rear end of his car.

I stopped just short of the Mercedes. The motorcyclist behind me did not manage to stop on time. I heard this loud bang at the back and felt my car jerk and when I looked into my side mirror, the poor motorcyclist had fallen onto the road in the slow lane. Thankfully the cars in the slow lane managed to stop in time, or else the motorcyclist would have been squished! *shudders at the thought*

And what of the big black BAD Mercedes? It sped away. *thinks of a hundred different things to call the driver* Of course he didn't care that he had just caused an accident due to his selfishness and that traffic was starting to pile up around my car and the motorcyclist. Selfish people are the scum of the earth.

So, I quickly manuveured my car to the side of the road and parked there. The motorcyclist managed to get to his feet and came over to the side of the road too. When I approached him, he was actually apologetic to me for knocking into the back of my car! Poor man, already bruised and he scraped his leg and knee when he fell, and he's still apologizing to me. (I think he was more afraid I was going to make him pay for the damage!) Whereas, I was worried that he had injured himself in the fall, and was quite prepared to take him to the clinic! (He's not that young already, in his early fifties and he was wearing a DBKL t-shirt, the kind that you see on the roadsweeper or maintenance worker.) Anyway, we both reassured each other that yes, he was alright and yes, it was the fault of the BAD Mercedes driver for cutting out like that. (Even his use of the signal light was unexcusable in this case!) So the motorcyclist went on his way and I went back to survey the damage to my baby.

Upper portion of tail light completely knocked out, but that's OK, because the bulb was still intact and tail lights are replaceable. What pained me was the sight of the dent on the right of the tail light, and the minute gouge and hole in the bodywork on the left of the tail light. A hole, for crying out loud! *cries* How to patch back a hole? Anyone know if it can be done?

So now I'm driving around with a busted open left tail light (the right has two patched up holes courtesy of my first accident, also involving a motorcyclist) until I can get it fixed, which isn't anytime soon. And my poor baby has a scar and scrapes on both sides of the rear bumper. So sad!

And in case anyone wants to know (but I'm telling it anyway! Heh.) this is my 3rd minor accident in 3 months and the only 3 times I've had an accident in my driving history! The first, the rear right tail light incident on 29 March. The second, badly scraping the rear passenger door of my dad's car on 12 May. And the third, on Monday, 18 June.

Is it just me or is this new job of mine the jinx? Yesterday makes it twice since I started work in March. *heaves a big sigh* So now I'm even more paranoid when I drive. If you see a Kelisa with a busted open rear left tail light, who knows, it could be me.