I have grown up with an over-protective ‘I’m-going-to-worry-about-the-fact-that-you-will-get-cold-wearing-that-shirt’ mother. One of the pearls of wisdom my mum would throw out my way was to drive safely. This was usually rebuffed with a sarcastic retort that went something along the lines of - ‘wasn’t planning on it but I’ll reconsider now’. Whilst I am not your mother, recent experience has given me a great urge to remind you all to drive carefully over the Easter holidays.
Car accidents were always that misfortunate mishap that caused endless traffic delays on the motorway, or they occurred to silly motorbike riders who weave between lanes as if they were in an action movie. Well, that perception was shattered a couple of weekends ago when a friend of mine (who was not a motorbike rider!) was involved in an accident.
There were 9 of us who decided to brave the National Park near the Jenolan caves for the weekend. An action packed weekend was planned from toasting marshmallows by fire light to horse riding in the Megalong Valley. The weekend was all going to plan until one of the cars had a head on collision on one of those dirty, windy, no phone reception roads.
I’ll skip the horrifying pain shrieking details and get to the point. Miss BS ended up in hospital with a bleeding spleen, 2 fractured ribs and torn ligaments in her back resulting in a rod being surgically inserted along her spine. This is the same Miss BS who hours earlier was leading a bushwalk, smiling and giggling at Mr. VN’s terrible navigating skills. The same Miss BS who had a full time job and planned to head overseas in the near future.
Car accidents do happen, and not just to strangers. So listen to your mother and drive carefully these holidays!