The tough night

The night before last I experienced the most intense accident I have ever had in my life. It was late in the evening I was on my way back from my journey to the University of Oxford.. Usually, every other Tuesday, I attend the Iranian history speeches run by Professor Homa Katouzian at St. Antony's College. Last Tuesday was one of those seminars too. A young friend there offered to give me a lift home. I thanked him and wanted to go back as usual by the public bus, but he insisted. At last I accepted. We had a beautiful chat together all the way to London. Amid the conversation, he mentioned that he had bought his car recently, and this was his fourth Toyota Yaris. He said: "I can vouch for Yaris based on ample personal experience, and this is a good one.”

When we were on a main road quite close to my house, out of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a narrow sideway and we crashed into this car. The accident was extremely intense.  Both cars were so entirely damaged that they could not move any more. The accident happened very quickly, in a fraction of a second. The first thing I paid attention to was our safety. No one was really injured. However, my leg hit the dashboard and I was in real pain. I tried to move my leg to find out whether it was broken or not. Fortunately it seemed OK. My friend who was driving us asked the other driver how he was doing. He was OK too. Seconds after that, suddenly, we saw the other car is trying to move. A pedestrian on the street cried: "Be careful. He is escaping!" Actually the driver of the other car was trying to, but he could not because the right wheel of his car was totally displaced. When he realised he could not move, he got off, came to me and asked whether we could declare someone else as the driver? "I am not the one who decides,” I said, and pointed out to my friend as the owner of the damaged car. He was talking on his mobile by the time. I could not believe it, seconds after that, the young driver disappeared.

The street was entirely blocked by these two cars. A taxi driver behind us came and gave all his details to my friend, volunteering to testify on his behalf if needed. I admired him as responsible citizen. He said he had seen first the accident and then the young driver's disappearance. After a few minutes a new man came and said: "I was the driver!" It was another shock. He was not alone; he came with a bunch of people, his family perhaps. An observer told me to be cautious, because they might deny the truth and create a new story, quite the opposite of what had actually happened. I was quite confused.

It was rainy and a bit cold. After standing ten minutes out in a corner of the street, I noticed that I was shivering. I did not know the true reason behind my shivering. Was it from the rainy cold weather or was it from the shock caused by the accident?

The whole process took about three hours until police came and received our report, then the insurance company sent somebody to collect the damaged car.

It was one hour after midnight when I got home, all soaked, tired, and in a real pain. I could not believe what had happened and felt sorry for all the loss my friend had suffered just because of me. Even though it is hard to compensate for his car, I feel I have to. I will try my best to make it up to him.