Nelson Mandela said:
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes naturally to the human heart.
He was right.
When you hear about white supremacists and some ill-disposed people displaying hate towards their fellow humans, you may find yourself begin to doubt the truthfulness of Mandela's view of people. But once in a while you will see humans displaying their natural tendency to love than hate. Such was the event that took place this evening. It was an altogether unfortunate event but it went a long way to restore my faith in humanity.
I was on my way home when I saw the truck fully loaded with sand swerve off the road into the lane of oncoming vehicles. The driver, to avoid crushing a cyclist when it lost control. It smashed into a Toyota Camry sedan, pushing it to the left, off the road to a depressed roadside. The impact overturned the sedan and the truck climbed upon it and both came to a stop. Luckily, the cyclist was unharmed. Unfortunately, the driver and three passengers of the sedan were trapped inside the vehicle under the truck.
The crowd gathered on the scene trying to help. Some could be seen removing sand from truck
The truck driver fearing a possible lynch by the crowd, which the wreck would attract, fled the accident scene. I was one of the first responders. There was really little I could do. Some other young guys walking past leaped into the truck and with the spades in the back of it frantically started throwing off sand from the back of the truck, intermittently trying to see if the mob could overturn the truck. Some went off to bring large boulders of rock to wedge the truck after each attempt to lift it.
The nearest road safety office is 7km away. I wanted to contact them on phone but the number I found online was too busy. There are cries, prayers and other frenzied activities going on. Everyone was trying to help, no one knew the trapped occupants, but today we are just people looking out for each other. Of course, there are the curiosity seekers that have a penchant for gore taking pictures which I bet would end up on Facebook and Instagram.
While this was happening, a bulldozer was passing by and the remaining crowd, by sheer numbers stopped the big vehicle and directed the driver to help in the endeavor. When he realized what was going on he obliged. An attempt to tow the truck would have resulted in possibly smashing the lives of the occupants they were trying to save. Using the bulldozer blade, the driver pushed the truck and slowly toppled it.
The truck removed off the sedan with help of the kindhearted bulldozer driver
The crowd retrieved the accident victims lifting them up above their heads and loading them onto a vehicle that took them to hospital saving two out of the three passengers. All these they did with bare hands. It is sad that the pregnant woman in the sedan died. However, the events that took place after the accident restored my faith in humanity.
I wish the victims quick recovery.
Thanks for visiting my blog.