Statistics

'Tis the season once again, and the local road guys are gearing up for the usual festive-season carnage on South African roads. The news last night stated that 12,000 road deaths occur in our country every year. Yes, TWELVE THOUSAND!

A few years ago I was nearly a statistic. The car at right is what I was in. It was around 11 at night, and I was on my way home from an alumnus function in Cape Town. My only exit from the function was into a road that had a blind-rise bridge on one side and a blind corner on the other. Needless to say, I was pretty cautious trying to get out into the road, and even pulled back to let one guy turn into my road. When I was sure it was safe, not a car in sight, I pulled out.

Unfortunately, a drunk guy in a new BMW (4,000km on the clock) had chosen that night to speed. He came around the blind corner extremely fast, and too late for me to pull back - I was already across his lane and turning into mine. He slammed straight into the side of me, aiming for my hip and hitting it directly. I don't remember the impact, only thinking "oh boy, here comes an accident" as his lights approached.

My seat was pushed right over the gearstick by the impact, the dashboard bent into a rainbow shape. My seatbelt held, but somehow a shoe came off. I was knocked out for a few minutes and didn't see a lady who came over the blind-rise bridge and nearly added to the accident! She had a cellphone with her and I managed to call my dad, still stuck fast in the car, when I came to.

He didn't know how serious the accident was, or that I called him while trapped, only that I was going to be taken to a nearby hospital, and he would come see me the next day. I was lucky in that a friend was just down the road. He was able to manage the accident scene until the ambulance turned up, fighting off two tow-trucks who wanted to tow the car with me still in it to their respective places of business (vultures!).

It took a while to get me out. The door wouldn't budge or bend, so they moved me over the seat and through the back passenger door on a back-board. Something inside me had broken in the process, they weren't sure what, so I was fitted with a neck brace and moved carefully.

When they discovered a child seat in the back, they panicked. There was no sign of the child! But in one of my more lucid moments I managed to tell them he was safe at home with my parents.

However, the staff at the hospital were not as careful or considerate. I had to twist this way and that for them to get an x-ray with a static machine - if my lower back had been broken it may have permanently severed those nerves!

The x-rays showed a badly-cracked pelvis, but the broken "tailbone" only showed months later at a doctor's re-examination. I was made to move while nurses changed bedding, telling me to suck it up because I had nothing broken, but all the time being in awful pain.

I was moved to a hospital nearer to home the next day - again the night staff were a nightmare, but the day staff were great. It took months for me to recover, and still today there's a twinge in my pelvis at times. I find it hard to sit on the ground (at picnics and beaches) or on hard surfaces. I've lost my absolutely supple lower back that used to do backbends right over without bending the knees.

And no, the drunk driver was never charged. At that time it was not compulsory to take a breathalyzer test at the scene - you could do it 2 days later at the police station. No statement was taken from me, all that was written down was the few words "he was going VERY fast!" that I uttered as they tried to get me out the car.

Thankfully, I was not a statistic.

I could have been two years ago when nearly wiped out on a blind rise by a 4x4 towing a caravan and headed home to Gauteng, but avoided that one by the skin of my teeth.

I was lucky. I still am. Many are not.

If you are planning to drive anywhere this festive season, do so responsibly, sober, with care for others. Please, before there are more statistics.