car accident

It was on the highway about 10km south of the city, around 10:30pm on Sunday night, and I was on the way home. There was this car on fire stopped on the left shoulder of the highway. Anyway, I was in the middle lane (the highway is three lanes at this stage) and driving by, and there was this car in the left hand lane that was driving really slow (rubbernecking I reckon, curiousity getting the better of them) when suddenly they jumped into my lane in front of me. So, in a bid to get out of their way, I swerved, lost control and ended up doing a 180 degree spin, hitting the steel road barrier in the middle of the highway with the left hand side of my car. The instigator of this unfortunate incident didn't bother stopping, and because I was facing the wrong way, I didn't manage to get a glimpse of the number plate of the car.

It was pretty much just body damage to the front and back of the left of my car, and my wiper fluid had all leaked out, but thankfully that was all - it could have been a lot worse. Anyway, a couple of nice people pulled up to help redirect traffic and stop it momentarily so that I could my car up to the left shoulder. Got out to talk to the others who had stopped to help, and then this guy came running up to us saying that the car was full of fuel and it could explode at any minute and to get out of there now! So we drove down the highway a bit to be further away, and then I talked to two others for a bit who pulled over to help out (one happened to be an RACQ guy, and they were in a tow truck - he was the one who ran over first to see if I was ok and check the car). By this stage my heart was thumping like crazy and the adrenalin was pumping through me, and it got worse when they said that one of their friends was still over there near the flaming car. Thankfully, he eventually walked down and gave us a bit of a rundown on what had happened (emergency services had arrived, and there were four people in the car, with the driver suffering some minor burns). After noting that they were still letting cars past, we decided that there was no way the car would be on the edge of blowing up, and they must have it under control by now. I can't find the story on the news so I guess it didn't blow up in the end. I ended up driving home, so the car was ok. The brake lights stayed on for some reason, even when I turned the engine off and took out the key, so I had to pull out the light globes to stop the battery from running out when I got home. Took it to the mechanic this morning to have a look at it, but it should be ok.

My first car accident, and I'm a bit shaken but not stirred. To be honest, the first emotion I felt was anger at the idiot who cut me off, which got worse when they didn't stop. What an interesting end to the long weekend. Not looking forward to the costs of fixing the car though...