I was heading home from Bicutan last Feb 15. I usually take C5 from South Luzon Expressway cause it's the shortest route going home. But if it's too late or if I don't see any other cars taking the C5 route, I pass via EDSA. It's a longer route but there are more cars and it's better lit than C5.
For some reason that night, I decided to take C5 instead. Travel was smooth and traffic was nonexistent. Passing the Kalayaan intersection and crossing the Pasig Bridge, I was shocked to see right before me a Tamaraw FX, jeep and van in a major 3 car collision which made the bridge totally impassable. The FX was already slightly hanging out of the bridge. A truck and I had to step on the breaks immediately from likes speeds of 60kph to a full stop because of the accident which looked like it
just happened a minute earlier.
The cars were near total wrecks and you could see some bodies being carried out from the wreck. It was a scary scene. The accident caused a total standstill of 50 - 70 cars behind us. I was also personally tense cause I was worried that an explosion might occur from the crash and there was practically no way to distance myself cause of the cars all behind me which could not move anywhere else. Worst case was to abandon the car and run away in case the cars would leak gas and explode. Luckily, there wasn't any fire and after 20 minutes, it heavily rained. It toko the paramedics around 30 minutes to get there. They also had a hard time finding out how to get to the bridge if a bunch of cars were blocking the road. They had to pass through the other end of the bridge.
It didn't seem that the bridge was going to be clear immediately, and after an hour, the police decided to assist all the cars stuck on the bridge to slowly back up. It was a long slow wait cause even before I could start backing up, I had to wait for the other 50 cars to backup and this is a long flyover so you could imagine how long that took.
While I was waiting for the other cars to move, I realized that if I had been at that place a few minutes earlier, I may have been part of that accident. It was a scary thought, enough to include my being safe in my prayers for the victims of the tragedy.
I got home 2 hours after I left Bicutan, still a bit rattled and couldn't sleep right away. In the morning, my parents told me that the accident was shown in the news and it so happened that a drunk driver from the other lane hit the island, flipped to the other side and cause two other cars in my lane to crash straight into it at high impact. Two bodies were pronounced dead while several were injured.
Drinking while driving is really a serious matter. I'm no drinker and I definitely don't drink and drive. But what's scary is that even if you follow that rule, your life may just be in the hands of someone who doesn't follow that rule.
Don't drink and drive, not just for your own well-being but as consideration to others. Be safe.
- Saturday, February 21, 2009
- 3 Comments
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