Crash

Sunday 17th October, 12.30pm

We crash, big time, totalling a car. 

We were on the N2 about 90km north east of East London.  I was driving and we had a bus in front of us.  A pick up truck coming from the opposite direction was trying to overtake and came over the centre line.  The bus clipped the side of pick up, which then came flying straight into us.  Distinct moment when we knew we weren't getting out of this: we were going to crash.  I swerved and it connected on the driver’s side door.  Airbags went off straight away and we went into a spin.  At this point we were both feeling pretty lucky and like we’d gotten away with it.  Then the car started to roll.  We rolled 3 or 4 times.  One clear thought I had was: so this is what it feels like.  I thought we were done for, but as soon as we came to a stop Nick asked if I was alright, so I knew he must be ok.  We stopped upright (luckily) off the road and were both able to get out of the car.    We were in shock and couldn’t think what we were supposed to do.  A got a lot of hugs off the local women who came to see if we were ok.  We had a very lucky break: a family travelling to Port Elizabeth saw us and stopped to help.  One of the men, Levi, was an off duty policeman and immediately took charge.  He phoned Hertz to sort out the car for us and spoke to the police who had arrived.  The ‘official’ help was shockingly bad.  The only medical attention either of us got was the offer of an antiseptic wipe – not even a once over.  The police were not much better and scribbled our details on a scrap of paper.  

We were driving a VW Polo, which luckily has good safety features, including we are told, a roll-cage.  Having tested it out, we highly recommended it.  Apparently the guy driving the pick-up which caused the whole accident didn’t have a licence and had been drinking…

Levi and family loaded us and all our luggage (we were told anything left in the car would be nicked) into their car and drove us into East London.  They showed us where some decent hotels were, gave us the details of a private medical clinic and then took us to the Hertz office so we could pick up a replacement car. 

We took ourselves to the clinic so we could both get checked out by a doctor.   Apart from bumps, bruises, grazes and a few stiff muscles we’re both ok – pretty impressive considering the state of the car.  Surprisingly, all our luggage survived as well (even my sunglasses, which I was wearing – go Ray Ban).

We were told we needed to check in with a police station.  We tried this, but they were distinctly disinterested and we were told there was nothing for them to do.  We’ve booked into a hotel and are planning to take it easy for the next couple of days.

Janet adds: so grateful for the help we had today – we really needed it. 

Nick adds: VW Polos are my new favourite car.