Gbaaaaaam! And It Happened; See What Alcohol Could Do

The sound of ‘gbaaaaam’ and the crackling of metals woke the entire neighbourhood from their early morning sleep. With sleepy eyes, people rushed toward the direction of the sound. An accident had just happened, and five people were dead, with several others injured.

The driver of the 18-seater Toyota Hiace bus was caught between the seat and the dash board; his legs were tightly wedged in between the brake and clutch pedals. The villagers tried to pull him out of his seat, but he remained glued; and after all attempts to free him failed, they decided to employ the use of axes to destroy the engine of the vehicle in order to free his legs.

While some concentrated their energy on breaking the vehicle’s engine, others tried to revive the few passengers who still had hope of survival. The dead bodies were separated and kept by the corner of the bush. Eventually they were able to free the driver’s legs, and he was rushed to the nearby hospital along with the other injured passengers.

One more passenger, a young man, died on their way to the hospital from his multiple injuries. They finally got to the accident and emergency ward and were received by a well prepared medical team. The nurses ran around cleaning and suturing wounds, and the doctors concentrated on carrying out surgery on two persons (the driver and one other passenger) whose cases were critical.

Eventually, they were able to repair the passenger’s abdominal wall that had been penetrated by a piece of glass. However, the driver was not that lucky as he had his two legs amputated because they were badly damaged. Though his broken collar bone was successfully repaired, he would have to live on a wheel chair for the rest of his life.

What actually went wrong?
The driver admitted driving under the influence of alcohol on that fateful day of the incidence. He also admitted he had resorted to the use of alcohol since he lost his wife two years earlier, as a way of consoling himself. Eventually he had become hooked on alcohol; so on that fateful day, he had taken about three shots of local gin (ogogoro or kaikai) at the motor park before embarking on the ill-fated journey.

He had driven at top speed all night until he got to that bend and suddenly saw a broken down trailer. He tried to avoid the trailer, but swerved into the bush where he collided with a palm tree. And now he has to live on a wheel chair for the rest of his life.

It is not a good idea to drive under the influence of alcohol; and it is also not the best to console oneself with alcohol, because one could become addicted to it and suffer more harms than the original problems he was trying to escape from. Alcohol can directly or indirectly destroy your life. Run away from it; it has nothing good to offer you.