Safe.

Alhamdulillah...~~

Today we attended the "Jom Masuk University 2013" [ Attend Universities for Further Studies 2013 ] carnival at MiTC, the Malacca International Trade Centre. All was good and fun and well and full of useful info and such. Spent 2 or so hours in there; rowing around, chatting and digging-up all of the precious, priceless and necessary info for further studies.

Upon returning from said event, I first went Alor Gajah to drop off my friend, as he was kind enough to accompany me I thought I'd return the favour.
All the way I was maintaining the stated max. speed of 90km/h and all was well.
Then all of a sudden the car in front of me suddenly brake to a stop.
I guessed that that driver was also stunned by the car that was front of him/her and so does the car that was in front of said driver and so on.
But on my case, I did not notice the sudden "stop" because I hadn't came up on the bend. Soon as I clear the bend I saw the car break lights light up signalling that it is breaking to a stop.
With my current speed I could not brake safely in line of the car and I know that even if I had tried to, I would've kissed the back of that MyVi. So, I hit the brakes hard then I found that the lane to my left had an extra space of two cars or so. So, I tried to switch lanes in order to increase my stopping distance.
But, unbeknownst to me, the fact the I've hit the brakes as hard and as sudden, it caused my SAGA to skid.
Even as I have successfully switched lanes, I have not enough traction to stop even with sufficient stopping distance.
As a result, as if by instinct, I break hard-left and ripped my e-break. As my car felt like it was slowing down further, I feel the weight of my car heavily on my side. I thought my SAGA is gonna do a barrel role like the one in the FastN'Furious 4. The apparent sudden resistive force of the e-break and the change of direction had decreased my momentum enough that the initially calculated stopping distance was sufficient. The e-break did cause me my tyres. The smell of burnt rubber entered my SAGA. Probably cause of the small opening at my window.
When my car had safely stopped, I'd realised that I was no longer vertically facing front but am facing the side of the road. Then I tilt my head left to check on my friend and all was fine, alhamdulillah. After that, my eye caught a glimpsed of what is approaching us from the passenger window. It was a lorry. A big massive one, with one-EPIC-sized trailer that it was carrying. It felt like a fast approaching train was gonna hit us. The lorry driver had probably faced the mistakes that a reckless P-driver like me had probably made. The driver, who I noticed was a Malaysian-Indian, appears to calmly lowering his gears until his lorry slowed down to a perfect stop with just a couple of feet from my SAGA. And then, it was as if time had stopped for a second. My heart had stopped beating. My mind had stopped thinking. And all there were, was a sigh of utter relief from my friend and cars honking breaking the silence. That one moment, that one second, was the fastest and longest second in my life. It felt like all that had happened had happened in a blink of an eye. It also felt like everything that is possible to occur at that moment was occurring at the same time, it caught my eye and curiousity one after the other. I was correct in my assumption that I would've kissed the MyVi. I was correct in my calculation of the extra stopping distanced in the left lane. I was glad of the fact that my car had stopped. I was glad that there were no cars speeding. I was glad that the lorry was a "berkhemah" driver, or at least had hoped that he was. I noticed the worryful state of my friend. I noticed a handful of people out from the shops looking for the screeching sound my skidding car had made. Finally, I was glad of whatever had taken over me had done because we had stopped safely with minimal collateral damage.

As ' these ' were occurring, all that was racing through my mind was that " Have I served my parents enough to cause them to bury their son in an unfortunate state?? ", " Would I be forgiven?? ", " What effect have I caused to the other families if a pile up was to occur?? ".
But what was racing through my heart on that one moment, when a pile-up had not occurred because of me, was utter-relief, nervousness, fear, great-excitement, unshaking-decision making thought process, courage and thankfulness. Heck, everything in between utter-relief and thankfulness was probably the adrenaline. However, that moment would never ever leave my mind for the rest of my life. Such an EPIC memory.


***AlhamdulillahI guess all the is to it is to;
- Appreciate the loan of life given unto you.
- Live today as you'd die tomorrow cause you'd never know when you'd die.
- Care for the people around you, those that love you and those that care for you.
- Take each that occurs, one at a time, a little bit at one time.
- DO NOT SPEED!!!
- Ensure safe stopping distances. [ If there were no spaces on the left lane, I would have surely not be writing this today. ].
- Enjoy the moment that you have. You'll never know if it will be available again.