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Accident: Truck's wide load smashes off rickshaw's roof, hits my head

Those images look straight out of a Final Destination movie.

BHPian ArTigor recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I survived a terrible accident while visiting my native place. Here is the chronology of events:

The entire family of 5 people were travelling to our farm located near a small village near Solapur to celebrate Eid. We were driving down in my Tigor from Navi Mumbai, we left post midnight on 9th July for the 450km one-way drive. We almost undertake one visit per month so it is a regular affair where 70% of driving is done by me and 30% by dad.

We reached our village at around 11 am and on reaching my village we noticed my sister was running a fever, hence we decided to halt at the village. Me, my wife and my sister got down to visit a doctor, the doctor advised on administering glucose hence asked my father and mom to proceed to the farmhouse which is 7 km away and come back to pick us up after a few hours. It was raining heavily on that day and out of the 7 km road to my farmhouse, 4km is a pure dirt track. Due to very heavy rains the road was not usable for a car, dad had somehow managed to get the car to our home but said that he cannot bring it back to the village. In such a situation we generally rely on the 3-wheeler diesel Ape auto which our farm caretaker owns, these Ape which we also call ‘Tumtum’ are like the sasta (cheap) off/dirt road alternative in our region especially during monsoon to bring goods and labours to and fro our farm to the village in bad road conditions.

So the Tumtum arrived by 2 pm and my wife and my sister left for the farmhouse. The route to our farmhouse consists of one kilometre of National highway which acts as a bypass to Solapur city for vehicles travelling from Pune-Solapur highway to Vijapur, this road has dense heavy vehicle traffic. In a few minutes after beginning our journey, it started pouring cats and dogs, I was sitting to the extreme right, my sister in the middle and my wife to the extreme left. I realize that visibility is very bad and ask the driver to take another route, and then turn towards my sister to see if she is fine. Just at that moment, all I hear is a huge bang sound and something crashing into my head, and the next moment I remember myself on a stretcher in hospital, in between I have a faint memory of seeing my wife for a fraction of a second and getting onto a motorcycle. Apart from that, I do not have any memory of what happened. Later my wife told me that I got out of the mangled auto on my own, walked towards her, that’s when she saw a deep gush in my head and my clothes were completely drenched in blood, she held the wound tight in order to stop blood flow and in the meanwhile I spotted 2 men on a bike and indicated them to stop, they made me sit in between them and took me to the hospital I walked up into the hospital till the casualty ward till the stretcher and lay on it on my own, again all this is told to me by the people who were there, but there is absolutely no visuals or register of this in my memory.

Our 3-wheeler had crashed head-on with a steel deck being carried on a trailer which was projecting almost 8 feet on either side. A bolero which was ahead of us made a quick manoeuvre to avoid the steel deck but as it was raining heavily our driver could not see the deck and drove straight into it. There were no blinkers or flags on the projecting portion. The upper half of our 3-wheeler was completely crumpled and post the impact the 3-wheeler travelled 10-15 feet below the projecting deck and then came to a halt. Luckily my wife, sister and the driver had only a few minor bruises but me being 6.2 feet was sitting at a much higher position and my head took severe impact. The accident happened right next to the Tehsil government hospital hence I was attended to within a few minutes of the accident, and bleeding could be stopped or else things could have been worse, I was then forwarded to a bigger hospital in Solapur.

Things could have been much worse but I survived without any fractures to the skull or any internal bleeding in the brain. All I had were 3 deep cuts on my head which cumulatively amounted to 15 centimetres. On 10th July I underwent surgery where they stitched the cuts and a part of my dangling skin into place, later I got discharged on 14th July. The entire family is still in a phase of shock but god’s grace that today I am back to normal.

By the way, I always drive down to my farmhouse in my car but call it a coincidence that it was probably after 5-6 years that I was taking the 3-wheeler to my home and the accident happened.

One of the most important things I did during the process of being given first aid was not to panic, keep calm and keep speaking, I did not want to lose consciousness. The moment I gained hold of what is happening around me at the govt. hospital near the accident spot, I started talking to the medical staff telling them my details, health vitals and allergies. The right side of my face had gone numb for half an hour, but then by the time we reached a bigger hospital in Solapur sensation on the right side of my face was back.

The doctors said that I did not lose consciousness at any point and the loss of memory or non-registering of visuals during the first 3 minutes is because of the shock, the fact that I walked out of the 3-wheeler and made my way to the hospital was an indication that my brain was functioning well. Pre and Post-surgery scans confirmed that things were alright.

We did not pursue any legal procedures and asked the police to close the case as proceeding with the case would have resulted in a long drag and our auto guy who is also our domestic help and caretaker would have been dragged in.

My wife jokes now it seems I should wear a helmet in 3-wheelers too. In fact in 2013 when I had a severe accident with my bullet the helmet saved me as my head had impacted the road at almost 80 km/h.

Here are the pictures:

You can see the distance this auto has travelled after colliding.

That's my Tigor to the extreme right of the picture, dad and family arrive at the accident spot. At this point, my dad thought I am no more, in fact, many people from my village after looking at the accident, thought that there are casualties.

Here's what BHPian Gannu_1 had to say on the matter:

Those images look straight out of a Final Destination movie, man! Glad you (and your family members) survived this. Truly, a second life.

Here's what BHPian BoneCollector had to say on the matter:

Glad to know that you will post such a horrific crash. Get well soon and back to driving.

How are such loads allowed on roads? Everyone in the administration is to be blamed.

I've always hated travelling in a 3-wheeler, had an accident in Delhi in 2001. Thankfully escaped unscathed.

Here's what BHPian IshaanIan had to say on the matter:

So sorry to hear of your incident glad that you are okay but I do wish you had pressed charges against the operator of that truck. Especially considering you had images also it is a pretty open and shut case against him for carrying goods illegally.

Also, I simply cannot imagine a scenario of heavy rains and poor roads that an auto can traverse yet somehow your Tigor cannot. I have observed many people babying their cars way too much in the rains. Once got held up in a jam because some interior road had knee-deep water on it but my Kizashi (with 155mm ground clearance) went through with no hiccups while Fortuners, Innovas and even an electric Nexon blocked the road taking u-turns.

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A helmet will save your life