The Daily Blog of Helga van

Tuesday

Dear Elsie

Today I went for a windy walk and while walking,  my mind went back to my car crash of 1984. I’ve had a few minor incidents since, but this was the first and the worst.  My first car was an old Ford Escort and I was one of the few nurses at Somerset Hospital that had both a car and a driver’s license so when a bunch of us decided to go to the Drive In, we loaded up the old car and off we went. If I recall correctly it was sometime in December 1984. A clear, balmy evening.  There were about 7 of us packed into the car. I think we went to Brackenfell Drive-in. We arrived, unpacked, put blankets outside and watched the movie. After it ended, we headed back towards Cape Town. We took the N1 and once we came into Cape Town, I needed to go drop off a couple of the nurses in District 6. This entailed leaving the N1 and going across the foreshore to cross over the Main Rd by the Good Hope Centre. This was the intended route..

It was at that intersection the accident happened. There are traffic lights there. It was late – maybe 10.45pm. The light was green for me, so I entered the intersection and as I did, a car jumped the red light. He was going quite a lick, coming from the Cape Town side.

It was quite remarkable because he hit the  very front right of the car. I was heavily laden with the 7 of us, so my car just stopped. He spun and rolled and landed on his roof in the middle of the intersection.  All of us nurses climbed out of the car and looked to see if we were all okay. Shocked but uninjured, I went to turn the car off and others went to see if the occupants of the other car were okay. We were blocking the intersection. Beryl, who went to see the other occupants came running back to me. “Helga!” she said, “They’re leaving – they’re just walking off”. And sure enough there they were – the husband firmly dragging his wife and heading towards Woodstock. Beryl & I ran after them, asking for them to please stop so we could just talk about this. They disappeared into the darkness and we weren’t about to follow them there, so we returned.

At that point, a couple of army guys came up to us. They had been the first to arrive on the scene after it happened. One of them sidled up to me, “Do you want us to get rid of some of your friends?” Of course, we had been completely overloaded, so with appreciation, we accepted his offer to take some of the friends home. There was much discussion about who would go and who would stay. No phones of course, so someone, I can’t remember who, drove Beryl and I to Cape Town central police station, so we could report it. The police followed us back to the scene of the accident. Once they had got what they needed from us, surprisingly, my car was okay to drive and Beryl and I returned to the nurse’s home.

Some months later, I was working at Groote Schuur medical ward, when I was told there was someone to see me. I went to the meeting room and there waiting for me was a very tall burly police officer. He was there to serve me a summons to appear in court at the court case of the guy who jumped the red light. The date arrived and I was called to testify what happened. I was worried that I would be asked how many people were in my car. The judge asked me if I was alone in the car. I said no. Then he asked, ‘was anyone injured?!” Whew. Fortunately not. The guilty party was then allowed to cross question me. He asked me, if I said I was going so slowly, why was his impact so severe? I couldn’t tell him that. He was going fast, but it did help that my car had some useful extra weight in it.

I later heard he was fined R500 for negligent driving and failing to stop after an accident. Apparently, he went to the police station to report the accident the next day. I guess he had to – his car was on it’s roof in the intersection. I never discovered how it was moved out the way.

A long drawn out case of insurance followed. I paid cash for my car to be repaired. Eventually, insurance paid out and that enabled me to pay what I owed on the car and Mike and I married without that debt hanging over our heads.

And that is the story of my 1984 car crash. Forty years ago, yet I remember it well.  We were protected that night, that’s for sure.

Exodus 33:14
The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

It’s not about now – we are only passing through.

Keep the smile going.

God bless you.

In His Grip,

Gran xx 🙂