Accident: How 5 seconds of over-confidence ended up being my downfall

It's not when you learn to drive that you get into an accident, It's when you start thinking you have mastered the skill that it happens.

BHPian BLACNWYTE recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

There are some things which you think will never happen to you. It's mostly due to ignorance and then hubris. I'm my case, I guess it's the latter.

When I was learning to drive, an elder cousin once told me that it's not when you learn to drive that you get into an accident. It is when you have many kms under your belt, when you start thinking you have mastered the skill that it happens. Why? It's because that's when you drop your guard. I didn't think much of it that time until I experienced it first-hand a couple of days ago.

I have been riding for about 9 years now and have never got into an accident on a two-wheeler till now. Why? Because I'm very careful and afraid of getting into an accident. However, everything changed in 5 seconds on the quiet morning of March 1st.

As usual, I was going about making my morning commute to the gym. This day, instead of taking my trusty Activa 125(Blu), I decided to take my BIL's Ola S1 Pro. I have ridden this bike quite extensively and was familiar with the acceleration and power on offer. Early morning the roads were empty and I started from home for the 4 km ride. There is an upward gradient with wide sweeping curves on the way. The road is new and smooth. I was enticed to ride a little more briskly. I was almost alone on the road and was doing about 60-65 km/h whereas I usually do 50 km/h on my Blu.

I took 3-4 curves at this speed and everything was ok while entering the next turn I thought, 'What am I doing?' and decided to reduce my speed. I applied both front and back brakes and everything went south in a matter of a couple of seconds.

Unintentionally, I had applied the brakes a bit hard and the rear wheel locked up and started sliding out. I released the brake hoping to get out of the slide and the bike recovered but went straight onto an old telephone post by the side of the road before I could do anything I crashed head-on into the post and fell on the road towards my right.

Thankfully the road was devoid of any traffic and I got up and got to the side. I was shaken up and winded as I had hit my chest and side on the handle quite hard. The scooter was lying with its back wheel in the drainage and its front wheel on the shoulder of the road. There was debris all around it.

An auto rickshaw went by which I waved to stop but did not and also a biker passed by, whom I asked for help also did not stop. Thankfully a lady and a guy who was coming on a scooter stopped and came to enquire about my condition. By this time I was able to catch my breath and I was assessing my condition. My left hand was hurting as I had used it to shield my face from the metal post. I was wearing a half-face helmet and as I crashed into the pole, I had involuntarily shielded my face with my left hand. While this saved my face, the right side ribs hit the handlebar hard and also my right foot got some scraping. The big toe was squished at the nail and three other toes were also injured.

This accident happened in front of a house and the lady who lived there came out with a glass of water for me. She asked me if I were feeling better and should call someone. I looked for my gym bag and it was lying near the scooter I got my phone from it called my wife and quickly narrated the situation. Since my BIL was not at home she asked my FIL to come get me. Now my FIL was on his morning walk and it would take him time to reach me so my wife's uncle said he would come pick me up.

While waiting for him, I was told by the lady(who gave me water) that this was a regular spot for this kind of accident as in the past week itself one girl on a scooter and a set of three boys riding triples had hit the same pole. Now it was about 15- 20 minutes since the accident and the lady and guy who first stopped began asking if they should take me to a hospital. I thanked them and told them that my uncle would arrive soon and they could leave. They stayed for some more time and then left. In my shock and disorientation, I never got to ask even their names. In between another relative of my wife spotted me sitting on the side of the road and came to my help. By that time uncle also reached and I went back home with him, leaving the scooter on the side of the road.

At home, I found that my wife who replied calmly on the phone was disturbed and tensed. She brought Dettol water and cotton and cleaned the wounds on my feet and my uncle got the car and off we went to the hospital. There I was taken to emergency and accident care and wounds were again cleaned and antiseptic medicines applied. I was given a TT injection and X-rays of my chest, hand and foot were taken. I consulted with the orthopaedic surgeon who told me that my left hand wrist had a ligament tear and bruises and cut all over my legs and chest. That was it. No broken bones or anything. I was very very lucky. I was having trouble breathing and the right side ribs were hurting like hell. I asked him again whether my ribs were ok since it was quite painful. He assured me that it was just bruising and he was going to prescribe some pain medication. He also told me to rest for a week.

We were done at the hospital in about 2 hrs and came back home I called up my brother to inform him and assure him that I was very much okay.

The thing that disturbed me about the accident was how much distress it caused to my near and dear ones, especially my wife. I never want to see her that disturbed/ distressed again. I am feeling so bad about myself that I allowed this to happen.

I have destroyed my BIL's new bike. Although nobody in the family cared about that as they were concerned about only my wellbeing, I can't seem to forgive myself for destroying it.

Because of this, my movement is restricted and I'm again burdening a lot of people. All this which I believe is primarily due to my stupidity. Lesson learnt. Painful, emotional and costly.

That 5 seconds when I decided to have 'fun' without assessing my or the machine's capabilities and my hubris caused my downfall. I was saved by an insane amount of luck. My FIL who went to get the scooter to (ASS) garage, on seeing the condition of the scooter remarked that if I had hit the pole face first, I might not be here to tell the story. Maybe throwing my hand out indeed saved my face and a torn ligament is a far lesser penalty than a smashed face.

My key takeaways from the incident are:

• It doesn't matter if you have been riding/driving for decades; all it takes is 5 seconds of lapsed concentration or a single poor judgment.
• The distress of your near and dear ones hurts more than your physical injury in an accident.
• Always be extra careful when using someone's vehicle/ property.
• Learn from your mistakes. I have learnt quite a lot and I'm sure that I will remember this for life.

Some pictures of the damage to the scooter and myself.

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