'FINAL DESTINATION' THIS IS NOT...

 On Monday morning, I almost had a head-on collision with a truck.

There, I blogged about it finally. I've been putting off to write this post with every excuses available under the sun, (although I could have tweeted about it almost immediately if it wasn't for M*xis zero-coverage in the area)

I swapped cars with Mom earlier that Sunday night, because I needed Mom's CRV to visit a construction site where we are servicing. It was a wet morning, been raining since the night before. Cruising along the North-South Expressway like I always do, I was relaxed and alert although I was fasting and running a bit late for the appointment with my client.

When I reached Km140, where the new flyover to the Prai Industrial area has just been completed, I remember overtaking several cars and I was on the third lane. All of the sudden, right before my eyes, I saw a cargo trailer on the fastest lane from the opposite direction of the highway, careened to the left  for a flip second, its tyres screeching and squeaking for the brakes before it lost control. The head of the trailer careened back to the right, hit the highway divider and overturned in a mighty, thunderous crash. I didn't see what was at the back on the trailer, but everything on it just spilled on the road.

The massive head of the trailer crashed on my lane, and it was moving straight at me if I didn't avoid it. I don't remember screaming at all, or panicking. But it my head, all I knew was to  keep my mind thinking of Allah, to keep my eyes on the moving trailer head, and to keep my hands steadily on the steering wheel. Puddles of water hit the car and I couldn't care less if there was any car on my right, there wasn't time to look at all. All I can think of was to not let the truck hit me.

And so I swerved to the left. I guess I wasn't moving that fast at all, and thanks to Allah there wasn't any car right next to me. Behind me perhaps, but goodness gracious, none on my left! Right beside the empty left lane was a concrete wall where the flyover to the Prai Industrial area just begins, and if the truck moved any faster, or I was any slower, I couldn't have been pinned to the wall by the truck. Subhanallah.

It was a miracle that I escaped unscathed. It took me several seconds for everything to register, but I kept the car moving. I do remember muttering omgomgomg under my breath and decided to pull over a good 50m from the scene, I think. The area was quite dangerous to pull over, after the flyover, the road further up is higher and if another vehicle from behind me got distracted by the accident, God forbids, it could lead to a pile-up. I stopped to calm my racing heart and thanked God for sparing me from the horrible accident. I couldn't see what has happened from where I was, several cars  from the opposite direction screeched to a halt. I contemplated to get out to help, but it was raining quite heavily. And how could I help anyway? I'd freak out if I see anyone get hurt. I called my staff to inform of the accident and told them that I'd be late. I decided to just make a move, drove a while and noticed the overpowering smell of diesel.

Disturbed by the smell, I stopped at a nearby petrol station to check my car. Luckily there were quite a number of petrol station attendants there and they checked my car to see if anything was wrong. Gosh, bless them all for calming me down! If I wasn't fasting, I could've gotten free coffee!

But in all seriousness, I wasn't being paranoid, some diesel did get splashed at the back of the car. Can you imagine how close I was to the truck to get splashed with diesel? I called my Mom, and she was so cool. Haha, although she was thankful nothing happened to me, she reminded me to read a particular 'zikr' to help me settle my rattled nerves. Then she told me to get the car washed. Heee.....

But life goes on, and I couldn't miss my appointment. Throughout the next 30 min of my journey, the images of the overturning truck kept rewinding in my head. Remember the burning truck in "Final Destination'? That's exactly how it was for me, minus the burning part and add some crashing truck coming at you instead. A series if 'what ifs' ensued, but in the end I stopped torturing myself and just concentrated on work. Couldn't see how I managed to do that, but I did. I didn't let it bother me for the rest of the day.

Is it a wake up call? I sure hope so. Perhaps it's a sign for me to pay attention a little bit more to the things around me, other than being too wrapped up in my own little world, in my own sea of worries and despair. Perhaps I should let go of certain things and don't spend too much time thinking of the unnecessary, don't sweat the small stuff. Perhaps I should live a little bit more, perhaps I should be more grateful I'm alive at all, stop all those suicidal and homicidal thoughts and crap. 

Today, I read in the news (The Star, Tue 13 Oct, N25) that the truck driver, died of serious head injuries. Innalillahiwainna ilaihi raji'un. But what saddens me is that the cargo, thousands of bottled mineral water, were being carted away by insensitive motorists who passed by the scene.

Tak senonoh punya manusia...