Yesterday I wrote about a car accident I had a few years ago. This is the epilogue…
The Follow Up
I ended up hearing back from the OPP officer that looked after the situation. It turns out that after careful analysis the Ministry of Transportation determined that the patching job done by the gas station (around the corner from my office) was shoddy.
It was far from industry standard.
What they had done was no better than gluing some rubber onto the hole and hoping for the best.
The point at which they had worked on superheated to an alarming temperature, causing a rupture that had nowhere to explode but outwards. It blew the tire apart so violently that it split into three pieces and left nothing but the rim.
This was the information I needed to show that the accident was not my fault.
I e-mailed the head office of this particular gas station (a franchise operation) and informed them that the shoddy workmanship from one of their technicians almost resulted in me losing my life.
The e-mail I got back had a smug tone, asking for proof.
I stated I had a two-page report from the Ministry of Transportation showing that several stages of the patching process had been skipped. I then asked for a fax number.
I got no reply.
As I was not injured, I couldn’t really sue them. It was not my intention to get money from them anyway. I just wanted them to know that they had put someone’s life at risk due to their negligence. Perhaps the fact that I survived to tell them that they had done bad work would inspire them to take action to protect future customers from harm.
Unfortunately, they didn’t seem interested.
Lessons Learned
I didn’t really take my life for granted before this accident happened. I don’t take it for granted now, either.
I try to make sure I tell my friends how much they mean to me. I still do this today. People that know me understand that my compliments are always the truth according to me.
I learned that taking martial arts can really help you in a crisis. I don’t know which martial art contributed to my ability to loosen up and relax. But this go-with-the-flow mode that I seemed to switch into was definitely not due to reading or watching television.
I also learned that in spite of people having different beliefs (which is their right), a miracle is a miracle.
Filed under: Anecdotes, Spaces Archive | 10 Comments »
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