Monday, March 10, 2008

A Year of Near Misses --Part 2

So, here's the continuation of my saga of near catastrophes here in Thailand. One thing to remember is that there are roughly 12 million people in Bangkok with probably 4-5 million motorcycles, taxis and tuk-tuk's. That makes for a lot of traffic. While driving, we have witnessed with our own eyes AT LEAST 6-8 motorcycle wrecks/bumps/crashes. They're quite common.
So, here are my stories. I've bumped a couple myself while crawling through traffic. The little "moto's" they drive on are small (125 cc's) and they slide between lanes of traffic all the time like ants cruising around an anthill.
#1The first guy I bumped didn't even turn around to look at me as we crawled slowly through traffic. My fault.
#2 A guy was driving between me and the car next to me and my mirror hit his handle bar. That one was probably his fault.
#3 A guy hit my mirror while driving by. I wasn't even moving. His fault.
#4 I was driving through a very congested part of town one day. Jim Hayes and Dr. Fred Moritz were in Jim's truck right behind me. I was looking for a very small road and I almost passed it so I did a quick signal and turned hard to the left. Remember, we drive on the other side of the road here. A motorcycle was passing me on the left and when I made the quick turn I nailed him pretty good. He stayed on his feet and didn't fall down but he gave me the evil eye. The great thing about Bangkok is that you don't even stop for something like that. I got a dent on my passenger side door but we were otherwise unhurt. I was kind of embarrassed that the Executive Director of Baptist World Mission had observed me hitting a moto driver, but it makes for a good story. Jim and Dr. Moritz laughed.
#5 While driving down a busy road a motorcycle got anxious to pull out. As I passed he hit the throttle too soon and he hit me in the back right tire. His front tire hit my back tire as I was driving about 50 km's per hour. It jerked the wheel out of his hand and almost knocked him over. His fault.
#6 I did get t-boned about a month after I got our car. A guy ran a stop sign and nailed me causing minor damage. I was almost able to jump out of his way but not quite. The Lord took good care of us that day. Trevor and Erica were watching a movie in the back seat. His fault and his insurance paid the bill.

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