Horse banged car in
Australia?
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
15 September, 2010 |
 toapayohvets.com
Be Kind To Pets
Veterinary Education
Project 2010-0129 |
Sep 14, 2010
9 pm
"As I drove round the bend, a horse trotted across the road,"
Dr J said as he started eating the nuts and melon seeds. We
were attending the wake of my god-daughter who had a car
accident on Sep 3, 2010. He wanted to attend the wake and
phoned me. My god-daughter had worked in his veterinary
surgery for around one year before embarking on a second
degree to become a veterinarian. She had worked as an intern
in his practice around 2 months ago. She was 5 weeks before
graduation and a car accident happened.
"What happened to the horse?" I asked. Kangaroos and deer do
cross the road suddenly in Australia causing car accidents. I
recalled an incident when a deer crossed the road suddenly in
Scotland where I had studied veterinary medicine but the vet
braked in time. This was the first time I heard about a horse.
"The horse slid up my car bonnet and smashed the wind screen,"
Dr J said. "You know that the bonnet usually has a curved
front. After the accident, the bonnet was as flat as a
pancake. The bonnet then sprung upwards."
"So what happened to the horse?" I was glad he lived to tell
the tale. A draught horse would weigh over 600 kg. I imagined
that the huge body of the horse would have killed Dr J if he
had driven the usual small car.
"The horse had to be put down later," Dr J said. "My face was
pock-marked with glass shards. The doctor had to extract the
pieces. When Nellie (a vet student in the 3rd year while Dr J
was in the 5th year in Queensland University in the 1960s) saw
my face, she burst out laughing."
"What make of car were you driving?" I was surprised that he
did not suffer more serious injuries.
"A Holden" Dr J said. "A big solid car which is common in
Australia but too expensive to be sold in Singapore". This
explained why he was not killed in the accident as it seemed
that the impact sent the horse's side body shooting towards
him crashing into the windscreen. In Australia, the minimum
speed for expressway is said to be 100 km/hr unlike lower
speed in Singapore. So, drink-driving accidents are common
every weekend such that the trauma nurses in the Perth's
hospital know exactly what to do when the helicopter flies in
the accident victims.
"These trauma nurses would literally run towards the helipad
when the announcement was made of the arrival of the
helicopter," my god-daughter's mum told me when I visited her
yesterday to comfort her. She had been hospitalised in Perth's
major trauma hospital before her return to Singapore. "Is it
like the TV show 'ER'" I had asked her. "Yes, very much like
that."
As for Dr J, he was fortunate to be alive today as he had
driven a big car. The car was around 8 years old but it
protected him as it had a longer bonnet than the usual
Japanese car.
"Did you get compensation?" I asked Dr J. "The laws said that
in this accident, nobody is at fault. Nobody gets
compensation. It was around 3 months before the final year
examination. I had to go to various farms to do internship.
So, I rushed to buy another car."
"Why would a horse be wandering around at 9 pm?" I asked Dr J.
"The farmer said that his horse had escaped." This was
plausible. "When you are young, you tend to take risks. I was
driving a motorcycle everywhere in Brisbane and up and down
the expressways as a student."
"A young man thinks that he is invincible." I remarked. The
testosterone surge in young men in their early 20s had led to
a large number of fatal accidents in Singapore and all over
the world. When I was a young man, I tested my Mini-Clubman on
the Malaysian expressways, overtaking big lorries as much as
possible driving from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur at night. I
sped till the Clubman rattled at 120 mph and I thought it
would split open. Fortunately the Clubman returned to normal
status when I slowed down or I would not have lived to write
this story.
As for Dr J, he went to Brisbane recently. "I looked at the
GPS navigation system as I drove," he said to me. I had to
hold the handset close to see the map and to drive as well.
There is no need to check the map anymore."
Fortunately he lived again as this is a very risky way of
driving in Australia. The country side roads are full of
gravel and some expressways have pot-holes. "Drink-drivers are
common," Dr J said to me. "You may need to be alert as they
may hit you even though you are careful. As the expressway is
long, you can fall asleep while driving." We can learn much
from stories but the young ones may forget when they are at
wheels. They still have to drive very carefully and make sure
that the car is well maintained regularly and the car tyres
are in good condition. Vet undergraduates in Australia need a
car to go to farm practices which could be >5 hours away and
the Singaporean students find that the cars there are as cheap
as A$500 for a 20-year-old car or A$3,000 for a sporty model.
For Dr J, he bought a second car after the accident and he
could still make money when he sold it. |
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