59 The Mazda Sinking - The Driver Unharmed
Thursday morning, while I was brushing my teeth, my cell phone rang. At that hour it could only be my wife. No doubt she remembered something she forgot to tell me before she left for work. While driving, everyone calls everyone. You are waiting for the traffic light to change and see other drivers holding lengthy conversations with people unseen.
But no, that wasn't the case. This time it was something different. "I had an accident", says my wife. "I am ok. Nothing happened to me, but the car is in a ditch. I am standing in the pouring rain and waiting for the tow truck. I have already ordered one. Come and keep me company until it arrives". I got ready quickly and went. On the way from Gan Shmuel to Hadera, next to the turn to Kfar Yuliana, close to the strange, elongated square that marks the entrance to the city, I saw our car stuck in the mud. The water had already entered the car and reached the front seats. Indeed, nothing had happened to my wife. Luck. She lost control suddenly and started sliding (on the evening news I heard mention that all the cars of this model were recalled for the correction of a production error that was liable to cause loss of control). Opposite her a bus was approaching dangerously close. In attempting to avoid him, she turned in the direction of Kfar Yuliana, slid, went off the road to the left in front of the bus and fell into the ditch.
Everything happened slowly, she says, almost like a slow motion movie. The car struck a mound of earth in front of the ditch and almost stopped, but then, slowly the front part slid down and the car slipped into the water.
We waited about an hour before the tow truck arrived. We stood in the pouring rain. In the meantime a police car and an ambulance arrived. Drivers who saw the accident had apparently notified them. There was no need for them. The ambulance team saw that no one was injured and went on its way. The police waited until the tow truck had picked up the Mazda and left. Two hours after the accident we were in the garage. One more hour and we were home. Everything happened quickly. Now all that remained were the procedures – assessment and insurance. The water caused serious damage. The car was a total loss.
But this evening when the news on the television spoke of the defect that was discovered in all the cars of this model, my wife became very excited. Is it possible that that was the cause for what had happened? Tomorrow we shall try to find out, if we can. The car is already in the hands of the insurance company.
