by Irini Kotroni

Created on: October 20, 2010

The sickening sound of metal on metal as my car hit the red car that had for some inexplicable reason crossed in front of me, was horrendous. I waited for another car or worse a truck to run into the back of me. My car was now spinning round like a child’s top and I was certain that this was ‘it’; quite simply I was going to die, my time was up. I recalled that in films one’s life was supposed to pass in front of one’s eyes before you died. I waited for that to happen; it didn’t nor did I see any bright lights at the end of a tunnel and at that point I felt I had a chance of survival.

It was a typical sunny September morning, there had been a little light early morning rain but the roads were now dry. I was in good spirits driving to work at 7.15am in my new Mazda MX5.  The traffic was just starting to build-up and I was on the south side of Nottingham’s busy ring road system with several cars and large trucks and trailers behind me.

The stereo system was pumping out light, happy music and all was well in my world. It felt good to be alive. After several wilderness years of good strong sensible cars I was finally driving a sports car again. The cars had had to be sensible to accommodate my mother’s wheelchair; sadly she had died twelve previous.

I had been a sports car owner several times throughout my driving life and the thrill of driving them was still in my blood. Early that same September I finally gave in to the temptations coming from the Mazda showrooms that I used to pass everyday on my way to work and had purchased a new MX5.

It lived up to expectation, every journey was a joy and I relished my time spent behind the wheel of the car; commuting was a pleasure.

I was on a freeway approaching an intersection for which I had right of way when a red car completely disregarded the ‘Stop’ sign and came across in front of me. All I could think of was that this red car was going to wreck my pride and joy, my lovely new motor.

In a split second I realised that I might not walk away from this accident and that the driver of the red car would be killed at the impact of my car. I was in a line of cars and trucks; a lot would depend on what would crash into me once I had crashed into this car in front of me. I took the decision to aim for the back end of the car in the hope that it would cause less injury to the driver of the renegade car and maybe I just might avoid the car. A split second is all

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