A Lucky Escape

We organized a huge party out of town before we went on vacation for the summer. We wanted to rent a van from Andrew's father because he had a yard full of cars for sale. We took the van out of town on a material day, four of us in the van, including Simon, who was named as the driver on both journeys. We picked Simon as the designated driver for two reasons: he was the most seasoned driver among us and he didn't drink. We arrived early in the afternoon and partied all the way until the evening.

As fate would have it, it started raining as we hit the road and this made the country road very slippery and secondly, we were on a road frequently used by trucks and trailers. When we started to climb on a long hill, the traffic suddenly became very slow because the trailers ahead were snaking their way up the hill holding up the rest of the traffic behind them. Being a two-way traffic road and big trucks rumbling down the road, it was extremely dangerous to overtake unless one had a very powerful car. However, it bothered us very little because we were drunk and excited about the party. We were playing loud music in the van and took little notice of what was going on outside. Only Simon was cursing every now and then because we were getting late.

Then our window of overtaking came. Simon swung to the left and floored the gas pedal and the van, equipped with a turbo engine, roared in full power. Other cars behind us followed suit. It dawned on Simon that there was a row of trailers to go past and large menacing truck was rumbling down the road. Then suddenly right in the middle of overtaking, we all heard the unmistakable sound of the turbo failing. The van lost power immediately. We were never going to overtake the two first two trailers without full power. We all became worried. Simon tried pumping the gas pedal several times but the turbo wouldn_x0092_t kick in. Unknown to us, turbo engines frequently experience this ( Erjavec 961). By this time, the trailer coming down the road was a few yards away, hooting menacingly. As a last-minute maneuver, Simon swerved the van sharply to the left, going off the road. We landed in a ditch hard, I broke a rib and the van_x0092_s engine died immediately.

But the three cars that were behind us weren_x0092_t so lucky. Unable to escape, they were caught right in the middle of overtaking and right there on the road. The driver of the trailer went past us, tried to avoid the cars by swinging to the right but it was too late. He collided with the car head on, went over the first two cars and rolled several times. As it were about to settle on the side, the trailer caught fire. Since it was transporting some flammable petroleum products, the resulting fire was hot and huge and the two cars, immobilized and just a few yards from the burning trailer caught fire too with their occupant still trapped inside. It was the most traumatizing experience of my life to see a car engulfed in fire with the occupants inside. When the firemen later arrived, there was nothing to be rescued.

_x000c_Work Cited

Erjavec, Jack. Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach. New York, NY: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.