Caution: Cause no Harm!The day that I wrote this was March 14th, 2011. It is the day that I avoided what would have been one of the saddest accidents, had it happened, and although it would not in any way have been my fault, I would have been devastated to the point where I’m not sure I could have ever got over it. So, I came home and wrote about it right away. The story goes like this. While driving along an empty country road during the day I fought the temptation to put my foot down and sail right along. This was out of habit because being that the road is in the country and that it cuts through many fields of orange trees, there is always the possibility that a farmer will be moving about on his slow tractor.
As I moved along a straight stretch, I suddenly saw a car that wanted to enter the main road from a side road, and in a flash there appeared a small dog that ran out into my path. Obviously the dog wanted to go with its owners in the car. It should have been tied up or secured in the house, but there it was running alongside the car. When the car stopped the dog continued on into the middle of my lane. I had zero time to think about it, and zero time to react, but I wrenched the wheel so that I went into the opposite lane. I missed hitting the dog by only centimetres. In my rear view mirror I saw the driver come out of his car and scoop the dog into his arms and hug it while he burrowed his face in its coat. That’s when I began to tremble and I slowed the car down to a crawl as I tried to regain my composure. This was a carbon copy of two other incidents of accidents that didn’t happen.
One involved a child of about four who was with his father and another man. They were talking and nobody was watching the child, so I thought that I had better do so. Suddenly as I drew close to them the boy took it into his head to run out into my path. He just stood there looking into my lights. It seemed to take the men forever to even notice. That was an accident that wasn’t going to happen with me. The other incident involved a young girl who was riding her cycle with her mother. The mother had changed sides of the road, and was quite oblivious of what the girl was doing. I thought that I should hang back because I was sure she was going to change over as well, probably without looking back. That is exactly what she did and the accident was avoided.
Stupid mother; stupid father; stupid animal owner, stupid adults! I’m not saying that I have never done anything stupid, but it sure feels good when I can make up for other people’s stupidity.
Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael
