Road Kill *Video*

It’s dangerous to travel the roads around Africa – and don’t I know it!

It’s not unusual to see car and bus crashes all along the highway due to a deadly combination of overcrowding, speeding, bad roads, and bad driving.

One of the most harrowing experiences was a bus trip I took in Ethiopia, from the capital Addis Ababa to the northern seaside town of Bahir Dar. It was to be an 8-hour trip and we left at 5:30 am (which was 6:30 am Africa time).

It was dark when we left, and raining. About an hour into the ride, I awoke to women screaming and the squeal of tires. Not a good sound. I remember thinking, “I hope we’re crashing into something and no going over the edge.”

As it turns out, we did crash into something – a lorry heading downhill without brakes, on the wrong side of the road, directly into our bus. We swerved at the last minute and just caught the trunk on our right front corner.

Just check out this video of the damage:

Can’t see this video? Click on this link: Ethiopian Bush Crash

Amazingly no one was hurt – including those in the truck. In any event, I was actually in pretty good position: middle of the bus, not by a window. I was wearing my seatbelt and had my inflatable travel pillow around my neck, so my head and neck would have been protected.

My buddy Ricardo wasn’t so lucky. He was in the death seat (the first row on a big bus, facing the enormous windshield). Apparently he knew he was in the death seat and when he boarded he thought to himself, “If there’s an accident, I’ll throw himself into the aisle facedown” –which is exactly what he did.

Just before impact, he lobbed himself in the aisle, saving himself from being sprayed with the broken glass from the shattered windshield. A near-miss indeed!

Again, the most important thing is that no one was hurt. And we got a replacement bus in only 4 hours, so we made it to our final destination later that night. All in one piece!

Have you had a scary road accident? Tell us about it!

Tags: bus crash, Ethiopia, road kill

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 and is filed under Africa, On the Road.