The Midnight Crash

12:30 am 17th July

I am writing this blog on some random stuff, and suddenly I hear this deafening noise. Curious to find out what happened, I put on my sandals and run outside. As I am running down the corridor, I hear people screaming "Oh ! My God"...I increase my pace and as I storm through the front door of the apartment, I see a badly mangled car. I search around for the other car, and find it lying totally wrecked about 30 mts away on the other side of intersection.

I walked up to the scene of the accident, and even before I can ask the lady "What happened ?", she tells me "I called the police already. There is a Station pretty closeby". On enquiring whether anyone was hurt, she points me to a girl sitting on the other side of intersection. Since it was pretty dark I couldnt get a clear image of what was happening, but I found her clutching her head and feet and moaning. Before I could start my own little enquiry of the accident, I here sirens wailing, and within no time there were 3 cop cars, and 2 ambulances......and I stepped back from the scene of the accident, to get a first hand account from the lady who dialed the cop.

She wasn't sure, but she went "I guess someone must have jumped the light, and crashed into the other. This happens all the time at this intersection. Though, not as bad as this....but I have seen a lot of them". "This happens all the times"...I thought accidents happen only on freeways....LA is crazy ! After a brief round of introduction, the lady finally bid goodnight and went home, but I stayed there staring at those ambulances helping the girl, and the cops talking to the other victim of the accident.(As I am writing this blog now, I can hear tow trucks clearing out the debris and hauling away the cars, or the piece of scrap metal that it has become)

A sample of what I get to listen on FM stations everyday back from work,
"The traffic on northbound 405 is bad as a truck hit the guardrails and flipped over. On 710 a car crashed into a pickup, and 2 southbound left lanes are closed. Traffic has now started moving on Santa Monica Fwy, after the debris of the crash have been cleared and all lanes are open. Traffic is still slow on southbound 5....."
...thats enough music to ears.....As I turn off the FM, I look in all the different mirrors that my car has, to make sure that I dont get rearended next.

On a lighter note, I am driving down Sepulveda Blvd near Brentwood cause the southbound405 is crawling at 10 mph. The traffic is no better on Sepulveda, and as I peep into the car next to me, I see the driver reading a magazine placed on his steering wheel.....the traffic is bumper to bumper and is moving really slowly.....and I glance the guy after 2 minutes and having moved about 20 yards, I see him flipping the page, and enjoying the magazine article !

Final Word: (from the movie Crash)

"It's the sense of touch. Any real city,you walk. You know? You brush by people,they bump into you. In L.A. nobody touches you. Were always behind this metal and glass. It's the sense of touch. I think we miss that touch so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something."