often i hear people saying how their life flashed pass them at certain critical moments such as when they were faced with life-threatening incidents. today, i can say that this cannot be true, and if it is, then the incident must have been a rather long one becos some incidents are so split second that there wasn't even enough time for such thoughts to occur.
you see, earlier as i was driving along the tampines expressway (tpe), something happened. i was cruising at about 80-90kmph along the expressway. there were lots of car and the car in front of me was less than 15m in front of me (or so it seemed). as i looked into the rear mirror, a car was speeding towards me. just as he was about to close in to a very uncomfortable distance behind me, an object appeared from the undercarriage of the car in front of me. the object flew towards me. directly in the direction of my face. it looked like it would smash point blank into my windscreen.
for that split second, many things happened concurrently. i could only interpret what the object was (circular, metallic, shining, about 1m in diameter, and it was spinning) and what my possible reactions could be (jam-break and let the car behind crash into me, swerve to the left and hit another car, swerve to the right and hit the road divider, or keep steady and absorb the brunt of the impact). in that milli-second, the object continued it's parabolic path - fast, furious; yet, in an eerie sense that i could not explain, slow. it seemed like time had slowed down suddenly just before impact. there was no time to let life flash before me. it was too short. i need to decide my course of action. a wrong decision would mean certain death. i held my steering wheel tight. if it were to crash into me, then i, and only i will die. so be it. it would have been a better end-state than if i were to kill someone if i had reacted any other way... the moments before impact seemed a blur.
and then suddenly, time stood still. luck was on my side. the object spinned such that it's face was on the same plane as the road surface. it must have been the air flow around a moving car, just millimeters before it hit my bonnet, the object took a sudden twist and it hit the road surface. my car ran over it. i heard it bounced before it hit my car belly. a loud crashing sound. my sense of hearing overpowered every other senses. the loud crash turned into a series of clangs and then everything went back to normal. in that split moment, all was quiet. everything around me was blank. next thing i knew, i was still driving. the car in front quickly filtered to the center lane. i overtook it. the lady driver turned her head and stared at me. she too had fear on her face. i was not sure what happened to the car behind. i maintained my driving speed.
and as i said, no, my life did not flash pass me. time just stood still. at one stage, my heart stopped momentarily, my blood stopped flowing. it was eerie. it felt longer than the actual time it lasted. i arrived home some 10 minutes later. still feeling traumatized. and there was cold perspiration.
even now, i still feel a little unsettled. i think i'll bring my dog for a walk.
you see, earlier as i was driving along the tampines expressway (tpe), something happened. i was cruising at about 80-90kmph along the expressway. there were lots of car and the car in front of me was less than 15m in front of me (or so it seemed). as i looked into the rear mirror, a car was speeding towards me. just as he was about to close in to a very uncomfortable distance behind me, an object appeared from the undercarriage of the car in front of me. the object flew towards me. directly in the direction of my face. it looked like it would smash point blank into my windscreen.
for that split second, many things happened concurrently. i could only interpret what the object was (circular, metallic, shining, about 1m in diameter, and it was spinning) and what my possible reactions could be (jam-break and let the car behind crash into me, swerve to the left and hit another car, swerve to the right and hit the road divider, or keep steady and absorb the brunt of the impact). in that milli-second, the object continued it's parabolic path - fast, furious; yet, in an eerie sense that i could not explain, slow. it seemed like time had slowed down suddenly just before impact. there was no time to let life flash before me. it was too short. i need to decide my course of action. a wrong decision would mean certain death. i held my steering wheel tight. if it were to crash into me, then i, and only i will die. so be it. it would have been a better end-state than if i were to kill someone if i had reacted any other way... the moments before impact seemed a blur.
and then suddenly, time stood still. luck was on my side. the object spinned such that it's face was on the same plane as the road surface. it must have been the air flow around a moving car, just millimeters before it hit my bonnet, the object took a sudden twist and it hit the road surface. my car ran over it. i heard it bounced before it hit my car belly. a loud crashing sound. my sense of hearing overpowered every other senses. the loud crash turned into a series of clangs and then everything went back to normal. in that split moment, all was quiet. everything around me was blank. next thing i knew, i was still driving. the car in front quickly filtered to the center lane. i overtook it. the lady driver turned her head and stared at me. she too had fear on her face. i was not sure what happened to the car behind. i maintained my driving speed.
and as i said, no, my life did not flash pass me. time just stood still. at one stage, my heart stopped momentarily, my blood stopped flowing. it was eerie. it felt longer than the actual time it lasted. i arrived home some 10 minutes later. still feeling traumatized. and there was cold perspiration.
even now, i still feel a little unsettled. i think i'll bring my dog for a walk.
2 comments:
Please don't die on me before i see u again!
(maybe next feb, i have 3 days in S'pore acording to current plans).
BTW, yr account could fit into the Men-in-Black movie. Maybe ur memory was zapped after the alien flying saucer was destroyed by the MIB.
maybe the thing that flew towards me was a flying saucer... hmmmm... :-)
look forward to catching up!
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