Re: Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road This happened in August 1996.
We were headed out to my maternal uncle's home city in my Dad's Premier Padmini Deluxe BE. The road heading from Raipur to Jagdalpur then was almost like a single-lane road back then, with plenty of twisties and U-turns/S-turns.
There was a particular nasty S-turn just before Kanker, which was dominated by a single, unusually large and thick tree on the left-hand side, which made it difficult for incoming drivers coming from the Raipur side to see if any vehicles are coming from the other side, and vice versa. Also, on the left side on either side of the large tree, there used to be an overhanging slope with a very acute downward spiral of about 3 meters, dotted by smaller, thinner trees.
I remember it was a very dark, cloudy and ominous day. Small raindrops had started splattering on the front windshield as we approached the S-turn, with our Padmini doing around 70-75 kmph (don't remember the exact speed). The first turn was negotiated well by Dad by slowing down, but as soon as he entered the second turn, he noticed a Trekker taxi filled with local passengers coming from the other side at the last moment. The road was narrow and he was taking the S-turn in the middle of the road, so he swerved to the left to avoid the Trekker.
That's when it happened.
We might have been at around 50-ish speeds, but still our Padmini spun out of control, did a complete 180-degree turn on it's four wheels, rolled backwards and left the road and went straight into the steep slope beside the large tree!
I was seated in the back seat, and as soon as our car started spinning around, I had ducked my head behind the front seat, closing my eyes and fearing/bracing myself for the worst. Ma, snoozing in the front seat, had given a cry out in sheer surprise as she swayed and hit her shoulders with Dad's, in line with the car's loss of control.
Our car continued to roll backwards despite Dad's best efforts and thudded to a stop against a thin tree which stopped our backward roll, but it was the only thing which stopped us from falling to the rocky ground 3 meters below!
Meanwhile the rain, expectedly, had grown heavier and it had started pouring. Dad tried to crank up the 1st gear and pull our car out but the wheels spun badly on the loose mud on the ground, without any grip. It was useless.
And then the tree on which our Padmini rested started to lean backwards from the additional weight, creaking and possibly breaking slowly!
I had regained my senses and was in the process of grabbing the door to get out and push our car, and that's when I noticed what was happening outside.
At least 9-10 guys from the Trekker taxi (it had stopped, seeing what had happened to us) had run over to our Padmini, grabbed it from all sides amidst plenty of animated and excited chitter-chatter in their local language, and started pushing it quickly back into the road again. The rain was getting heavier by the minute, and they all sensed that they didn't have even a second to lose.
Within 4-5 minutes, we were back on the road.
Dad's hands were shaking badly, but he opened the door to get down and thank those local lads and hand them a few bucks out of sheer gratitude, but those guys hadn't stayed around after their fantastic deed. They ran back and piled into the Trekker taxi as soon as they had hauled us to safety, possibly to avoid the unusually heavy downpour which was unloading bucketfuls of rainwater upon all of us by then.
Last thing I remember, they were waving at us with plenty of happy smiles and cheers as their taxi disappeared into the S-turn.
Dad and me got back into our Padmini and he drove ahead through the downpour, at much slower speeds than usual. By the time we got to the bridge just before Kanker, it was raining so hard that it was impossible to see the road ahead. Dad parked by the side of the road and with trembling hands, lit one of his Wills Flake cigarettes to calm himself.
As for me, I shuddered to think about what could have happened if those ultra-heavy rains had rolled in a few minutes earlier and had hit us when we were stuck on the slope, or if those guys from the Trekker taxi hadn't stopped and ran over to pull us out of, something which was, if not death, an ordeal which could have left all 3 of us in the hospitals for a long, long time.
I have never forgotten that accident, and those wonderful guys in that Trekker taxi. God Bless all of them, wherever they are today.
Last edited by RavenAvi : 28th September 2016 at 21:43.
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