Near-death experience

I stared death in the face today.

While coming home from paying some bills I was approaching a right-hand corner on the main road when suddenly an auto-rickshaw (a three-wheeled mini taxi here, called an auto for short) passed me very quickly on the right side, missing my front wheel by only inches. He did so in such a way that I was forced to go straight, eventually skidding hard into the curb with the front tire of my motorcycle. I watched in horror as the auto also slammed into the curb a little further down the road and then proceeded to launch into the air and flip several times mid-air and tumble one or two more times across the ground. The sounds of metal scraping, glass breaking and people screaming filled the air. Two of the 5-6 people inside were ejected during this process, and the auto eventually came to rest on top of two more passengers.

I ran over with one other person and lifted the auto off the passengers under it. I noticed two of them were quite badly hurt, and so was the driver. All three were bleeding quite badly and lying among the broken glass and other debris from the wreck.

Then it occurred to me that in cases like this it is a very risky thing to be a foreigner at this kind of scene. I had not removed my helmet yet, so was not sure if anyone knew who I was. I looked around and saw a crowd of at least 300 people had already gathered, so I decided to ‘make a move’ and get out before someone pointed a finger at me. I knew there were plenty of people to help those hurt in the accident, but it was really hard to ride away. Sounds pretty pathetic as I write it, but that is the reality of life here. The foreigner must always be at fault.

I got home and sat in my chair on the office for almost 45 minutes trying everything I could think of to avoid puking. I had so much adrenaline flowing through me.

I am ever so thankful for God’s grace and protection over me. Reminds me that every day I stay safe is because of Him.