Scary Incident

Has anyone seen that PSA (Public Service Announcement) on traffic safety about a car coming out of a driveway where the driver looks first on the left, then turns his head and looks to the right, sees it's all clear and proceeds to drive out, but a split second later, a guy on a motorcycle slams into him?

It happened to me last night coming out of the SM parking lot, Mexico exit and I was making a left towards Mexico! And just like in the commercial, I stopped, looked to the left, turned my head to the right. When I saw it was clear I let the clutch off and proceeded to move out the road.

In the PSA, the biker slammed into the car for dramatic effect I think. In my case, once he noticed that I didn't see him, he deliberately fell on the ground with his bike so as not to slam into me to avoid being seriously hurt. His actions made him slide towards me, scratching my bumper a bit in the process. I'm just glad he had the presence of mind to do that. Otherwise, he would have been in a lot of trouble, not to mention he's not wearing a helmet.Oh, did I say this happened at around 5:30 pm, with a slight drizzle and it's starting to get dark? And of course he didn't have his light on.

He immediately stood up right afterwards, obviously in shock. I rolled down my window, noticing people started to mill around checking things out, blocking traffic. So I pulled over to the other side of the road. I heard some people yell at me, "Go on and go!" So I did, but a few feet away I pulled over and checked out my bumper. I noticed a jeepney driver pulled over as well and told me I have to go back. I made a U-turn and on the way a mall security told me the guy was still there.

I got off and asked him if he's ok. He said he is, looking at his leg. I saw he had some minor abrasions. The fact that he was standing told me he didn't have any fractures. I told him to start his bike and sure enough after a couple of kicks, it started. He kept on saying he's ok but the mall security took our names and addresses anyway. By this time some cops came and tried to find out what happened. One of them asked us if everything is ok before he can 'release' us. I told him it's up to the biker. The biker said he's fine. So that was it and we went our own ways.

I went to see my brother Naring and told him about it. He noticed that I was concerned about the biker so he told me to go back to the mall and ask for his address so I can follow it up. I remember his head light came loose a bit and you know how in an accident you don't really 'feel' your injuries right away? He may have other injuries that weren't apparent and since I have insurance anyway I figured I'll find out if he's ok. I have a feeling he didn't have a driver's license that's why he never complained or perhaps he didn't have insurance. And since he's not wearing a helmet, he probably thought even if I was at fault, he may end up being in trouble himself.

The problem is that he gave his name and his address; Francis Duruin, Sto. Dominggo, San Ysidro. That doesn't make sense. There's a Sto. Dominggo in Mexico and there's a San Ysidro in the City of San Fernando. He may have deliberately misled the guards into giving out his real address.

Anyway, the point of the PSA is look to the left, then to the right AND THEN, look to the left again. Because the few seconds it took to look to the right, is enough time for a motorcycle to come unnoticed to cause an accident. But if I would have looked to the left again, I would have seen him coming.