some accidental mornings

i'm not sure i mentioned this before, but ever since i got the deed of sale for the car, it seems to me that nearly everything else on the wild streets has a propensity for hurling it/themselves in front of me.

...either that or i'm not paying adequate attention.

take yesterday, for example. my commute from makati to alabang requires that i use the south superhighway cloverleaf interchange at edsa. to that end, i take a few turns in the innner streets till i get to a point just shy of the onramp of the bridge. now, this being a place where drivers operate on the notion that giving way is an alien concept, getting on the onramp can be an exciting thing indeed between the cars rushing for the side road to take them to edsa and the vehicles committed to getting on the bridge with all speed unabated.

so: i get car in position, look left for a reasonable opening that won't require me to gun the engine to get into the traffic flow...

just as i get the car moving, and swing my head to the right so that i can see where i'm going, there's a guy on a bicycle directly in front of the car.

gaaah!

good thing i didn't jam on the gas. but that left my nerves queasy the entire drive to work.

must remember to look both ways all the time.

...

and today, on the corner of our street and evangelista, there was an accident between a 1992-era lancer and the previous generation cr-v. based on the geometry, the cr-v was crossing evangelista, and the lancer was in either no mood or condition to give way, resulting in the mitsubishi mashing its front against the left front quarter of the honda. the impact must have been significant, as the car's front had crumpled to the front wheels.

on reflection, perhaps the lancer was overtaking one of the jeepneys that habitually clog that portion of evangelista that choose not to get in line and then crawl along, picking up passengers. if that was the case, it then becomes no surprise that the cr-v and lancer had their "meeting". if not, and it was the result of the no-give-way mentality, then that's all the more unfortunate.

either way, for all you drivers out there: look both ways, and drive defensively...