My mum has a nice little ’84 Toyota Corolla.
It’s beige and it’s a little run down, but it’s her car and she loves it. Or to be more accurate, it was her car.
On Friday, 24th of August 2007 around half past nine in the evening she drove home. Unbeknownst to anyone, some damn fool decided to move one the grates that cover the storm water drains on our street. They moved it from its normal horizontal position to a vertical position.
This would only have been a half problem if it had been visible from the drivers perspective. However, since the grate was edge-on to the driver, she didn’t see it until right before she hit it, at approximately quarter to ten.
These photos were taken on Saturday morning.
As you can see in the background, the street has a 90 degree bend in it, and there are often vehicles going around that corner improperly. So we always drive slowly around it. And it’s a dead end street, so she was only doing about 40km/h when she hit it.
The grate (now back in its proper position) can be seen on the left side of the above picture, at the apex of the curve. Between the impact of rolling over the grate and those extra-high kerbs, she was knocked about quite badly.
Fortunately, she didn’t lose consciousness and called me on her mobile phone. This is on our street, so she was about 30 seconds from home when it happened. When I got to the scene, the neighbours (who heard what must have been an awful sound) where there and had called an ambulance. She was taken to Charles Gardiner Hospital, and I went with her.
Friday night was not fun, and my brother and me were at the emergency ward until about three in the morning waiting for the doctors’ prognosis. As it turned out, apart from a few bumps on the head, she hadn’t broken anything or received any major damage.
At this junction I need to say a big thank you to my friend Jarrom whom I called and arrived on the scene within a few minutes. He went to our house and fetched my things so that I could stay by mum’s side while we waited for the ambulance.
From the impact, the whole chassis is twisted. The bonnet is jammed shut and there is a lot of damage to the underside of the vehicle. The fuel tank was ruptured and we had an anxious moment keeping an eye on it.
The impact was so hard, even the light cover was cracked.
Overall, it was quite the nasty experience for all involved. Although we are grateful since it could easily have been a lot worse. It’s a good thing that she is a careful driver and wasn’t going particularly fast. There are a few people who drive quite recklessly on our street, considering how short and winding it is. It’s also a good thing that nobody who was walking along fell into the storm drain as they are quite deep and they would almost certainly have broken a leg, or worse.
It’s a sad end for a really nice little car, all because some retard decided to lift up the grate.
Update: The other day, the council came and fixed the damaged grate. And they don't do things by halves - look at how the new model looks:
Now, if only they'd do the same for all the other grates down the middle of our street...
Last updated: December 2007