THINKING ON YOUR FEET

How many times have you kicked yourself after the horse has already bolted. Thinking and answering something correct is a skill, and not everyone holds these skills. It may not be a question but an action and how you react in a life and death situation. These are tests that some of us have encountered in life and it has questioned who we are. In most cases they change the way you think and act.

A few years ago I was driving to Durban from Johannesburg with a trailer in tow. It was about 10 pm and the roads were fairly quiet and it is not a long trip about 6 hours with a quick stop normally. I had traveled about three quarters of the way and I wasn't alone. I had two work colleagues and my wife and we were doing the speed limit as there was no rush. Out of nowhere a cow crossed the freeway and I had to brake to avoid hitting it. Animals are common on the roads here by the way. I am sure some of you would realize how catastrophic it would have been hitting a cow at 120 km/h. Due to the sharp braking the trailer was now trying to overtake me and could see it out the corner of my eye. I had to accelerate to try and get it under control but couldn't catch it up and it dragged the car sideways down the three lane highway. We eventually stopped and the only damage sustained was to the trailer which had flipped over. I quickly jumped out and put it the right way up but realized that the fuse had blown on the car so I had no lights now.

I moved the car to the edge of the yellow line to avoid anything coming over a blind rise. It wasn't the best spot for anything to happen as we had to waive down a few trucks to avoid hitting us. I swapped out the fuse with another and we were on our way again. It was a close call and a rather uncomfortable ride back due to the flat spots on the tires. The insurance company replaced all 4 tires as they were basically down to the canvas.They had never seen anything like it before and it was a lucky escape that could have turned out totally different. If I hadn't of accelerated when I did we would most likely have rolled and I don't want to revisit the consequences of that.

I promised @janton a story about one of my colleagues years ago that was a fairly heavy drinker, most of them were. The cars that we had were automatics and left hand drive in a right hand drive country. Late one night he was fronted with a road block, and the police were breathalyzing all the drivers. With some quick thinking he hopped out the driver s seat and walked with the car in drive, holding the steering wheel. When the police asked him what he was doing, he replied that he was drunk and his car was taking him home. They let him sleep it off until they shut the road block down and he received a warning. Who would have thought of that at the spur of the moment ,when you are a sitting duck?

It is amazing what we are capable of when these sorts of things happen, a lot of luck is required but I believe we are all capable of doing the right things at the right time. You obviously don't want to go to the well and test how many lives you have or what you can get away with but thinking back we most likely all have had our fair share.