My cousin Farid has a motorcycle. It is one of those small Japanese machines that called HONDA but it can go quite fast. Going fast is very dangerous. I had this scary experience one night when I rode pillion on my cousin motorcycle at my village.
We were on our way home after watching football match in Indian's nearer to my village. My village was about 3 kilometers from Indian's restaurant. When we left the restaurant we had to proceed slowly and picked our way through cars and other motorcycles but once we were on the main road, we cruised along freely. The modern double-lane road really made traveling breeze.
The trouble with roads is that road users are tempted to speed. We were no different that night. Going at 70 km/h on the road seemed very slow. So I asked my cousin how fast his motorcycle could go. In reply he turned on the power and the motorcycle started to speed up.
The thrill of riding on a fast motorcycle was quite fantastic. The cool night air rushed past my face. Lamp posts, trees, slower cars and motorcycle flashed past us. It was as though I was on a racing track, much like that I had seen on television. I glanced over my cousin shoulder to have a peep at the speedometer. I saw the needle past 100km/h mark! Wow, I thought. I had never sat on a motorcycle that went that fast before.
Suddenly I felt myself lunging forward off my seat. From the corner of my eye I saw a dark shape looming in front of us. The next moment I felt my body launched into space.
One moment I was sitting pillion on a motorcycle, the next I found myself lying on very hard ground. What was this hard ground I was lying on?
I slowly recovered my sense to realize that I had been flung off the motorcycle. I sat up with some difficulty. There was a pain in my left hip. I tried to get up but I could not. I looked around. To my horror I found that I was sitting on the road. My cousin motorcycle lay about 4metres from where I sat.
I looked around desperately. My cousin was right behind me, lying flat on his back and groaning softly. I tried to move to help him but was again reminded by the pain in the hip I could not.
Under the street light I could see a dark blue car with one wheel up on the road divider. The left front door of the car was badly dented. Beside the car was a woman with worried look on her face. I then realized that we must have knocked into the blue car. The collision sent us flying through the air and the car up the divider.
All of a sudden I was blinded by powerful lights. I heard voices talking anxiously and footsteps hurrying in our direction. Other road users had arrived at the scene and they came to help us. The next half hour was a daze. I vaguely remembered being carried into a car. I was felt dizzy. Someone kept saying everything was all right. I then blacked out.
When I came to I found myself lying on a bed. There were other beds around me. I then knew that I was in hospital. My cousin lay on the bed next to me. He had badly cut face. I too had cuts all over my hand, but the worse was my hip which was bruised badly.
Over the next few days my cousin and I had the opportunity to reflect back on our painful lesson. Speeding was not fun but it had terrible consequences as we found out. I always thought that accidents only happen to other people. I realized that it could happen to anyone, even me.
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