Near Brush with death

Being a part of the IT/ ITES sector necessarily means working late into the night. Having spent more than 2 years in the industry, late night working has become a part of me and I don’t find it as difficult as people make it out to be. However, my recent experience made me look into this matter from a totally different perspective. On a working night last week, along with a few of my colleagues, I was returning from office at 3 in the morning. When we boarded the cab the driver was fast asleep. We woke him up; he washed his face, freshened up and started driving. I was mounted on the front seat adjacent to the driver’s and from the beginning of the journey, I was getting this feeling that the vehicle was slipping onto the right side of the road quite frequently. I was noticing the driver all along and I felt that he was struggling to keep himself awake. 10 minutes into the drive and suddenly, I realized that the vehicle was moving completely to the right. One look at the driver and I started yelling for I found him completely asleep with the steering in hand. My colleagues seated on the back realized that something was wrong and all of us started shouting. The driver got up startled and being in the state that he was, he turned the steering violently to the right and applied the brakes with all his pressure. The vehicle took two complete rotations and finally managed to stop on the opposite side of the road. All this happened in about 5 seconds time and all of us felt that we were facing the inevitable. Thankfully for us, the vehicle did not turn upside down, nor was there a median or any approaching vehicle on either side of the road. It took us a couple of minutes to return to normal and all of us heaved a heavy sigh of relief! It definitely was a near brush with death but I still would not classify the incident as a potential hazard associated with working in the night. Look at the kind of accidents that is happening all around you, most of them in broad daylight. I completely believe that whatever be the time of the day, a good driver would be able to drive well and safely. It is not that all accidents that happen around you happen because it was your driver who was at fault. There definitely is also a risk associated with every other person who is driving on the road and even with every pedestrian walking on the road. Ultimately, it all boils down to the time or fate as people might like to call it. Day or night, if something has to happen, it definitely will happen!

All said and done, the incident was quite an eye opener to me especially to the fact that it takes only a couple of seconds for all your dreams to come crashing down! I am wishing, hoping and praying that things go fine with me as well as each and every person around me and that I do not come to hear of any more of such incidents in future…