4:30 AM, March 23 of 2009, early Monday morning. Back from our meetup with charles/joseph @ makati, in a cab with Justin and Jarbs.
After dropping Jarbs off at their village gate, we proceed to the next stop which is Justin's place. As he was signalling for the driver to stop near at the safe side, we were going straight aimlessly at the road islands/gutters at the middle of the road @ 90 KPH.
The driver fell asleep.
Our screams of terror woke him up just in time, as we collided front tire first on the middle island, bouncing off violently as he tried to avoid more damage, from the left side of the road straight to the right in an ugly manner. With me in front, I could only wish that in that spur of the moment that there was no car behind us in that other side of the road or simply put, it will crash straight to us full speed, right into my seat.
A speeding pick up truck passed by and stopped cautiously at the side where we originally hit. If it was in the other side, I would be mincemeat by now.
If the driver didn't wake up in time to break and stop us from crashing full speed at the middle island, our cab would have flipped 360 or straight to the other side of the road where other cars are speeding full ahead from another direction.
He was all apologies. He's been driving for 23 hours with no sleep and he wanted to earn enough for his kid's tuition fees. I asked him to park first near my usual drop point and made him drink coffee. There will be no us to scream at him if he falls asleep in the middle of the road again.
He was thankful and apologetic. I was just happy to see no one hurt. I did hurt my left hand but I'd lose it any day over my life. The listeners over at the food stall where he drank coffee was urging me to file a complaint for his recklessness. I call it human error or perhaps, just plain fatigue. We all get tired after all. He is a nice man as I see it so I let it go, wishing him a safe trip home as he kept apologizing as I boarded my next ride home.
One last look on the badly bruised tire that saved our lives reminded me of how God does his wonders, no matter what, who, where or how you've been.
Learn to value what you have. My life surely didn't flash right in front of me in this nearest death experience I ever had, but it made me realize that in a flicker of an eye, everything we all worked for could be gone.
Gone for good. Thank you Lord. Thank you for saving us.
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