You have witnessed an accident and must report on what you have seen to the police
You may use the following notes to help you: Date — time — location — friend riding pillion on your bicycle — you stop when the car in front gives a signal to turn right — you begin to pass car on its left when lorry from behind speeds past — dazzling headlight — lorry hits car as it has almost finished turning right — car turns turtle — back door smashed — hits motor cycle from opposite direction — motor cyclist knocked down — heavily injured — lorry slows momentarily — number seen by you — lorry speeds off — you fetch help from nearby hospital — report to the police station.
1st January 2011/Jamshedpur.
It turned out to be an ill-fated day. Perhaps buoyed up (= raised in spirit) by last night’s spree (= joy) and carnival, the chap was a bit heady (= unbalanced). I was biking in an easy mood, carrying my friend on the pillion. The time was evening and the streets were adequately lighted.
The accident, although without a casualty, happened abruptly without giving me scope for thought. It was an unmanned bend. The car ahead of me was going gingerly (= with an easy speed). We too were engaged in an absorbing incident of the last night’s celebration. At the bend, the car in front pointed right. Things were well in order and in obedience to the rules of vehicular traffic. The road was as usual busy, as it was an important thoroughfare. There being no separate provision for the pedestrians, the bend was a bit congested. In retrospect (= looking back) I find that the car in front of me seemed to have a sensible man at the wheel (-driving). As he neared the bend he slowed down. In response, I, too, slowed and steered towards his left, as I had to go in the opposite direction.
The next few events happened in close succession. As I turned left, I was alarmed by the strong light of a lorry behind me. Usually, the rule is to keep the headlight low while driving in lighted streets, as it affects the visibility of other drivers. But this lorry seemed to be unaware of this; or, maybe, it had a novice (= beginner) on its steering wheel. Being alarmed I quickly veered (= turned) my vehicle further left. Before anything could be prevented, the lorry virtually (= almost) rode on the car ahead of me. The small car was badly hit by the lorry. There were some minor manoeuvering (-adjustments of movements) by both the heavy and the light vehicles. The car tilted (= turned upward) like a turned turtle (= a turtle helpless on its back). Naturally, the lorry had no scope to bypass the object and speed off, as it was veritably (= in reality) obstructed by the damaged car. The latter’s back door was smashed.
The incident held in temporary suspense all other vehicles as well as pedestrians. We two parked aside and observed in dumb dismay. I could not determine how I should react. We saw that the lorry slowed down a bit. But, to crown all these, we were taken aback to see that, as if out of nowhere, a motorcyclist ran against the lorry. The latter, evidently, was turning right, although it had no right of passage there because the other cars were already crossing along that way. The motorcyclist was shockingly hurt, it seemed.
My friend had, meanwhile, dismounted and was running towards the lorry. I promptly noted down its number, but, by then, the lorry was quite fast. It seemed to be visibly afraid of lynching (-being beaten by an irate/angry public) and was desperate.
Both of us- among others – rushed to the injured motorcyclist and a middle-aged man that was driving the car. Being hit sideways and as the back door was under direct impact, the man was not fatally wounded, as is the result in such a case. But his door was jammed due to the heavy jolt (= knock). However, we combined efforts to bail him out of his trapped door and took the injured to the nearest hospital.
I went to the police station and reported the number of the lorry.
