life flashes before my eyes in Brisbane
Hey so it's been way too long since I've stopped to write so I thought I'd just take a moment to tell you about a scary thing that happened to me in Brisbane...
First of all if you click on the title of this blog it will link you to the article in the MX paper (free daily paper much like the Metro or 24).
There are a couple details the article leaves out...let me fill you in but tell you first of all that I am totally fine.
On Monday December 15th 2008, I was walking back to The Fortitude Valley in Brisbane around 6:30pm. It was rush hour and I was walking along with a couple friends on the sidewalk. Ahead of us was an older Asian woman. We had just walked through a drive way leading into a parkade of an office building.
**(Let me just remind you that we're in Australia and they drive on the other side of the road from us.)
There were 2 taxi's park along side of the road to our left side facing our direction. There are 2 lanes and one of them (the one to our left hand side) is full with 2 taxi's waiting in a small line up. The lane next to them is busy with rush hour traffic trying to get out of the city. As we walked through the driveway to the parkade we noticed the 2 taxi's...and then all of a sudden the taxi that was tucked behind the first one was heading straight for us...it jumped the curb at a super fast pace and was going to run us over right in the middle of the sidewalk!
I had 3 seconds to react...
1st second - this taxi is on a mission to kill all 4 of us (me, my friend Amanda, my friend Christine, and the Asian Woman)
2nd second - get the heck out of the way!
3rd second - grab the Asian woman in front of me and pull her out of the way!
TOO LATE, before I knew it...just 2 feet in front of me, the Asian Woman doubled over the front right hand side of the taxi as he hit her with such force to carry her at least 3 feet back. He also managed to hit my friend Christine on the other side of his taxi. The concrete wall in front of the office building stopped the taxi from continuing on and in turn ended up tossing Christine into the driveway we just walked through and tossing the Asian woman down to the sidewalk!
It was all a bit sureal after that really...I stayed with the Asian Woman and held her head still while another women who worked for the city came over to help me. A woman on her scooter stopped for Christine and my friend Amanda came to her side shortly after calling 911 which BY THE WAY...is 000 in Australia. ha ha. Good to know. (SIDE NOTE: how come know one tells you this when you come into the country...God forbid you bring nuts, or fruit into the country. Please at least tell the tourists what number to call if there is an emergency!!!!!!)
The taxi driver was only 22yrs old. He was in shock I'm sure and when he gave his statement told the police man that he pressed on the gas petal thinking it was the brake! Seriously?! When the taxi stopped he got out of his car and ran to the Asian Woman laying on the sidewalk. First thing he did was sit her up...which is also the 1st thing you learn NOT TO DO in first aid! Yikes. I yelled at him to put her down and so did 5 other people around her. He even tried a second time after going to his taxi and returning with a jacket to prop her head up. Once again the chorus of on lookers yelled out "Don't touch her"!
Both women were taken to the emergency and the police were on the scene collecting statements to place the story together. It was something out of a movie, I swear. Christine ended up with a small fracture in her pelvis (she's walking now with the aid of crutches) and the 70yr old Asian woman walked away with minor head injuries.
Right after they got taken away in the ambulance I started to play the "what if" game. What if we were 3 feet ahead of ourselves...what if I was walking where Christine was walking...what if, what if...
After the police placed the stories together and took photos of the scene they drove me to the hospital where Amanda and Christine were. We stayed there until were heard the outcome of Christine's injury.
I'm just so thankful that no one was killed. The taxi driver will be charged with something but who knows what. I'm so curious to find out. This case will take a couple years to settle. I'm just so thankful I walked away from it.
Until next time...
First of all if you click on the title of this blog it will link you to the article in the MX paper (free daily paper much like the Metro or 24).
There are a couple details the article leaves out...let me fill you in but tell you first of all that I am totally fine.
On Monday December 15th 2008, I was walking back to The Fortitude Valley in Brisbane around 6:30pm. It was rush hour and I was walking along with a couple friends on the sidewalk. Ahead of us was an older Asian woman. We had just walked through a drive way leading into a parkade of an office building.
**(Let me just remind you that we're in Australia and they drive on the other side of the road from us.)
There were 2 taxi's park along side of the road to our left side facing our direction. There are 2 lanes and one of them (the one to our left hand side) is full with 2 taxi's waiting in a small line up. The lane next to them is busy with rush hour traffic trying to get out of the city. As we walked through the driveway to the parkade we noticed the 2 taxi's...and then all of a sudden the taxi that was tucked behind the first one was heading straight for us...it jumped the curb at a super fast pace and was going to run us over right in the middle of the sidewalk!
I had 3 seconds to react...
1st second - this taxi is on a mission to kill all 4 of us (me, my friend Amanda, my friend Christine, and the Asian Woman)
2nd second - get the heck out of the way!
3rd second - grab the Asian woman in front of me and pull her out of the way!
TOO LATE, before I knew it...just 2 feet in front of me, the Asian Woman doubled over the front right hand side of the taxi as he hit her with such force to carry her at least 3 feet back. He also managed to hit my friend Christine on the other side of his taxi. The concrete wall in front of the office building stopped the taxi from continuing on and in turn ended up tossing Christine into the driveway we just walked through and tossing the Asian woman down to the sidewalk!
It was all a bit sureal after that really...I stayed with the Asian Woman and held her head still while another women who worked for the city came over to help me. A woman on her scooter stopped for Christine and my friend Amanda came to her side shortly after calling 911 which BY THE WAY...is 000 in Australia. ha ha. Good to know. (SIDE NOTE: how come know one tells you this when you come into the country...God forbid you bring nuts, or fruit into the country. Please at least tell the tourists what number to call if there is an emergency!!!!!!)
The taxi driver was only 22yrs old. He was in shock I'm sure and when he gave his statement told the police man that he pressed on the gas petal thinking it was the brake! Seriously?! When the taxi stopped he got out of his car and ran to the Asian Woman laying on the sidewalk. First thing he did was sit her up...which is also the 1st thing you learn NOT TO DO in first aid! Yikes. I yelled at him to put her down and so did 5 other people around her. He even tried a second time after going to his taxi and returning with a jacket to prop her head up. Once again the chorus of on lookers yelled out "Don't touch her"!
Both women were taken to the emergency and the police were on the scene collecting statements to place the story together. It was something out of a movie, I swear. Christine ended up with a small fracture in her pelvis (she's walking now with the aid of crutches) and the 70yr old Asian woman walked away with minor head injuries.
Right after they got taken away in the ambulance I started to play the "what if" game. What if we were 3 feet ahead of ourselves...what if I was walking where Christine was walking...what if, what if...
After the police placed the stories together and took photos of the scene they drove me to the hospital where Amanda and Christine were. We stayed there until were heard the outcome of Christine's injury.
I'm just so thankful that no one was killed. The taxi driver will be charged with something but who knows what. I'm so curious to find out. This case will take a couple years to settle. I'm just so thankful I walked away from it.
Until next time...
posted by Krista @ 4:29 AM
