Miracles

Do I have a story of the week!  Possibly the month... Its probably going to be a long one, so I'll get straight to it.  This is a story of a miracle.  By all accounts, I should, at best, have a crushed leg.   But all I have is grazes and bruises.

On Monday, I went to a part of Baguio called Quezon Hill to get my computer fixed.  I dropped it off, then asked the computer guy whether there were jeepneys that went to town from there.  He told me I could get one from just outside, and where it would drop me off, and how much the fare was.  Riding a new jeep is a bit of an adventure, because you never know exactly where you will end up.

So, I walked down the driveway, and there was a jeep just there, so I hailed it.  Jeeps are Baguio's primary public transport system, and are old, elaborately decorated army jeeps.  You get in at the back, and there's a bench seat on either side, and you just find a seat.  In a western country, you could probably fit about 6 on each side.  In the Philippines, the driver won't start a homeward run unless there is at least 9 on each side (excluding kids).  Just for a point of reference, here's a picture.  Note the door...

Ok, so thats the scene set...  now is where the story gets interesting.

The jeep stopped, as did a water tanker that was behind the jeep, and I got in.  It was pretty full, but people do the 'philippine shuffle' and a seat always appears.  I was still standing up (actually kinda hunched, only 6 year-olds can stand up in jeeps) when there was a screech of brakes, and the tanker slammed into the jeep.  I flew out the back door (backwards) as the jeep went forward.  Judging by the bruises/grazes, I must have hit the tanker, bounced back and hit the jeep, and ended up lying on my back on the road, amongst the glass, gas and water.  I was conscious, but kinda out-of-it.  The computer guy and another guy ran over to me, and told me we had to go coz there was gas everywhere.  So they put my arms over their shoulders and half- walked me about 15 metres away.  When I say half-walked, that means I was 'walking' for the first half, then fainted for the second half.  But I was ok as soon as I was lying down again.

The poor computer guy was freaking out, because he had just told me about the jeep, then comes out to find me on the road, and I faint as we are walking.   I think he thought I might have died as they were half-walking me from the scene.

Ok, so what had happened was:  the jeep stopped, the tanker behind the jeep stopped, but the SUV-taxi behind the tanker didn't stop.  The tanker ended up wedged into the door of the jeep that I had flown out of.  Seriously, I don't think you could even see daylight through the door afterwards.  It was a miracle at least part of me wasn't crushed.  Also, when the tanker and jeep rammed each other, the pressure forced them sideways, away from me, and up the slope of road curvature.  It was a miracle I wasn't under the vehicles.  

And now in diagram form (I am a science geek after all):

So I got on the jeep, which had stopped at the side of the road for me:

And here comes the taxi:

I had real trouble with this next diagram, because I'm still not sure how I managed to get out.  I had trouble getting a stick person out.  How did a real person get out?  By the way, in the diagram I'm not on the ground- I'm still 'pinballing' between the vehicles.

And then I am lying on the road, in a large void space, away from all the vehicles.  But right where they where literally half a second ago...

And now some real evidence, courtesy of the computer guy's phone.  (I made him go inside and get it to take some pictures for me!)

Yup.  The door you can't see is the one I came out of.  A miracle.

Ok, so after all that, the paramedics came, and smeared me with betadine (bright orange antiseptic liquid) on my foot, and elbows.  Funny how we all have been programmed to smile for photos.  

My hip was really sore, and they took me and six others to hospital.  I told the computer guy, who was sitting beside me looking freaked, that I wanted to go to a different (private) hospital.  And it turned out his girlfriend was the head nurse at the ER at that hospital, so he accompanied me to the hospital. 

The ambulance ride was interesting.  The ambulance was pretty shoddy by western standards.  It did have lights and a siren though.  Think a old white van, seats ripped out down one side to put in a gurney, without interior panelling (so you can see inside the doors), no cover on the interior light (exposed wires) and I think no suspension as well.  It was kind of painful, because my entire lower back was grazed, and uh..  Baguio roads are...  not that smooth.  But, the worst road was the hospital driveway.  Which actually made me laugh.

Yup, so the docs sorted me out, gave me a hip x-ray (it was fine, just really bruised), and I went home to have a shower because I was covered in a mixture of blood, gas, betadine, glass and engine oil.

No one was seriously injured, the other people went to hospital with nose bleeds, and one little kid broke their arm.  I have grazes on my elbows and back, a few bigger scrapes on my elbows, back and hip, a pretty impressive bruise on my hip, a couple of lumps on my head, little cuts everywhere from the glass, and smaller bruises and grazes pretty much everywhere (I'm finding a few more now, because the pain from the bigger ones is going away, so I am noticing the other little ones).  

In other news, the design on my t-shirt dissolved (possibly from the gas??) and the engine oil will probably never come out of my jeans and belt.  Also, apparently the accident was on the news.

I went back to the computer shop today, and I'm pretty sure the computer guy visibly jumped when he saw me.  "I get a fright when I see you now."  He also made sure I wasn't getting a jeep home.