From 4
months ago, I wrote this one lunchtime. I still do wonder did that man die
immediately or is he suffering severe disabilities or just possibly, even if a
remote possibility, did he return to good health;
Another
accident. Another statistic. I am shaking and still a little teary as I write
this. I have seen so many traffic accidents and often with far more blood and
gore and yet this one has impacted on me, strongly. What will stay with me is
the frozen moment of all witnesses, for a moment gasping then the spell breaks
and crowds yell, push forward and some phone the authorities. Big raucous crowds
quickly form, as it’s a big intersection and my initial reaction is to lock my
doors and close my window. My own safety first; to my latter shame. Well the
crowds mean the dead or dying motorcyclist is not wanting for attention. I have
nothing to add to that mob and so stay in my work car. The accident was the car
in front of me, the moto now on its side and someone turning off the motor,
plastic motorbike pieces strewn across the road and the body, yes the body and
blood and no movement.
A few
people from the crowd took over. One is stopping people moving the bike or the
person hurt, they are in the centre of the 2 lanes, leaving a single car width
usable. The other man in the centre of the intersection is clearing a way for
one lane of traffic to move through. Way behind us, two intersections away or
so, sirens hail the ambulance but it can’t get through due to traffic. Orderly
processions of cars move through the narrowed intersection. Its lunchtime and
busy but the cars seem orderly. Being so close to the accident I am hemmed in
by all the cars around me. I could see the taxi try to maneuver to the left of
the bleeding body, close the road’s edge, but others in the crowd are immediately
telling the self appointed traffic civilian that the taxi shouldn’t leave the
scene. So the taxi driver resignedly turns off the car and waits. Now it’s a very
passive crowd along the roadside but diligent. So many people now but its calm
and the injured man remains, sensibly, left where he is, about 2 metres from me.
The taxi driver clearly decides he can’t make a run for it on foot. For this accident
there is no mob attack on the taxi driver but there are other local instances
of mob rule taking over, when accidents occur.
People
notice me waiting and eventually stop the cars in the one lane that is moving so
as to allow me space to reverse and get myself into the moving lane. The
ambulance sirens are closer now. The crowd keep the space vacant, where my car
had been, presumably ready for the ambulance’s arrival. The person is still
prone, the only thing moving is the blood rivulet towards the gutter. I try not
to look.
I
recall seeing him midair and the noise of his landing. I think the car and moto
hit at the furtherest corner of the front right of the car so that the rider
was flicked off and returned back over the bonnet and into the front right of
the taxi. But we were all stationery on a red light. One of the few traffic
lights in Dili that works on a daily basis. So it’s likely the moto had weaved
through the traffic to the front? Then went to go in front of the taxi, at an
angle and coincidentally the taxi has edged forward a little? A low speed
accident in a split second of unlikely events.
 |
| typical busy Dili interesection |
For me?
Memories
of last year. His extensive injuries at the hospital make me shudder. I had a serious and significant injury but not life threatening and yet I still got to go to Darwin hospital. I hope that this
man has died at the scene. I feel guilty about thinking this, but repeat it to
myself once more. Horrific injuries will not be worth enduring the ambulance
and hospital, I ask myself? Will the x-ray machine at the hospital even be
working? No xrays were available for me or the many others all at the national
hospital last year when I needed an xray. The xray I had at a local TB clinic
barely showed anything due to the poor quality of xray film and materials. 24
hours later the Darwin xrays had showed the multiple fractures and bone splinters
everywhere, making the diagnosis and treatment plan easily decided upon.
Ahhh
and the ability to access awesome pain control also came with the Darwin visit.
What will he get? And once my bones mended after 3 and half weeks, I had two
physio and a specialist tending to the injury and a GP making sure my general
well being was okay. I had financial independence due to insurances through
work.
His
family will suffer so much, whether he has died or if he survives. Especially
if he was the main income generator for an extended family.
I am
humbled. I almost wish I had a spirit or god to thank in regards to my own
recovery in the past 8 months. I am secular, so instead I cry, crying for all
the injustices that exist.
