IMF bouganvillea

[090906] on e way to e airport at 4AM, started talking about e instant sunflowers & chrysanthemums that have 'sprouted' up overnight in e Suntec area for e IMF/World Bank meetings/Singapore 2006 - beautifully ludicrous. & then we came to e stretch of ECP where bouganvillea plants have been sitting in e middle as a road divider ever since e expressway was completed in e early '80s.

one parent wondered aloud if extra pots of bouganvilleas had been placed among e original plants, & e other said that he'd never seen those pots in his 20+ years of driving along this expressway, & just then we saw in left-most lane: stationary car + man A lying on road + man B checking on him + distressed person C squatting down + wrecked motorbike with bouganvillea literally wrapped around e middle + broken flowerpot....

pulled over, called 995 to report RTA 2 victims ECP in direction of Changi Airport before Xilin Ave/Tampines exit please send help & brought tissue + first aid kit from e car over. by then another couple on a motorbike had stopped to help too. thankfully both A & C were conscious & lucid enough to respond to questions, plenty of abrasions & cuts & torn clothing but no massive external bleeding. apparently man A crashed bike into bouganvillea pot. pillion C was asleep & had no idea what brought about e rude awakening. think both landed on right shoulder, & A had it much worse than C who was still mobile. & then by magic an ang moh doctor pulled over, & Pig-pig & one parent handed him stuff from e first aid kit as & when instructed. A still had feeling in toes & could move his head slightly, & e doctor called 995 to update them on his condition & that of C's.

with help on e way & situation under control, continued on our way to e airport so that Pig-pig could catch her flight in time. hope A & C are OK. think they were damn heng - crash bike along empty expressway at 4+AM, & can have B to shield them with his car before other vehicles plough into them, & a doctor appearing within minutes.

f***ing thing that happened: white car speeding along e empty ECP in right-most lane swerved across ALL lanes to overtake another vehicle - narrowly missing e motorbike wreckage & people & cars that had stopped on e road shoulder to help - before swerving back across all lanes to e right-most one....almost ended up with 10 casualties instead of just 2....

lessons learnt:

#1. to prevent a non-fatal accident from turning into a fatal one, stop car behind e victims to shield them from being mowed down by other vehicles, like what B did
#2. it is near impossible for e 995 line operator & you to hear each other over e phone if everyone around you is talking loudly all at once (e cat had to run aside to make e call, in e process kicking someone's handbag outta e car)
#3. to stay awake even if one is passenger/riding pillion - help ensure driver is awake & spot bouganvillea pots/other obstacles/dangers in e way
#4. never to drive when sleepy - even if you survive your own driving others might not
#5. to have first aid kit in car
#6. colourful tattoos under e yellowish glow of street lighting make it hard to spot signs of injury - A's limbs & torso were totally covered by beautiful intricate tattoo-work & we had to look for breaks in e patterns/pictures & shiny patches (liquid blood reflects more light)
#7. to leave early for e airport even if you stay just an 8-min drive away!

e cat now realises that it was so focused that it still doesn't know if C is male/female, nor where e offending pot of bouganvillea might have been standing....it didn't even look across e road to where all e 'portable' bouganvillea are standing to see if A had crashed there & dragged a pot across all 4 lanes with e bike?

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + thewonderingstraycat ]