Day 2: Chinatown MAF (Part III)

U didn't think there will be a Part III? Neither did I.

It was about time to go home & I was snapping the last photos of Chang Er waving:

Nice bright decorations. Distracting?

So I was happily posing my camera by the road barricades that were left by the side of the road. Traffic at the junction was mostly empty as the cars had cleared on green light. I was reviewing the shots taken on my camera, engrossed in checking the details...

and suddenly there was a loud noise. There was hardly any screeching sound, and immediately a loud crunching of metal and glass, with the deep bang of collision rang through the night.

The next few seconds were a blur; I roughly remembered I looked up & saw two cars, limped and slowly sliding across the junction. The silver car slid to a stop at the pedestrian landing, while the dark blue car came to a halt near the middle of the junction after a half-turn.

The dark blue car's siren was blaring loudly, and there wasn't a sign of movement from within any of them. I was in a daze. My curiosity was irritatingly prompting me to take photos, but my conscience wasn't feeling right. I waited to see if the passengers were okay.

The dark blue car started emitting smoke from its engine, while the front door of the silver car opened. Two men came out of the car. Later on, the father emerged from the driver's seat of the dark blue car, and opened the doors for his wife & two children. All looked unhurt. The silver car's driver then went back into his car & took out a long torchlight, which he later used to survey the damage in his car compartment. The dark blue car had ran its battery flat, and is also no longer smoking. But stranded between the junction, it was posing a threat to other motorists. As other cars drive past the scene, their tyres crunched on the debris fallen on the road & they broke with piercing loud cracks, each sending a chill down my spine.

Accident scene.

Dark Blue Family Car.

Silver Car of 2.

Close-up on Silver Car.

Nowadays cars get crushed up badly & make loud crashing sounds, all just to dissipate the shock & protect its occupants inside. That's why crash scenes often look deadly and messy, but the passengers are safe inside, beyond the compressible zones surrounding the exterior of the main cabin.

It's different from walking past & seeing the scene than to have the whole incident happened right in front of you. I guess those pedestrians at the junction would have had a greater shock. It felt like I have become one of those disaster videos on reality shows. I never thought it was possible for me to be at the scene right when the accident happens; it's just one of those things that we see on TV but not in real life. To have witnessed the whole process of the accident can roughly equate to experiencing the accident like the passengers in the car did; to go through the initial impact, the shock, and then the recovery.

After many more passers-by gathered & the passengers were all safely out of the car, we took our leave. & as we walked to the MRT station, the ambulance promptly rushed past us towards the scene.