I calmly controlled the car to not crash on the concrete. How you would ask? To be honest I don’t know how I did that but it just happened.

As long as my lil’ sis was safe, I was fine with it. After the pipe there was a construction truck that was laying the tar road and it was not moving.

We were heading straight to it and not slower but faster. I would have no chance to pass it like I passed the concrete pipes that I passed few seconds earlier: it was either the pipes beside the road or the truck that I was heading to and not forgetting the on-coming traffic. Which one would you go for?

I too didn’t know which one to go for as they were all going to get fatal and none of them had the lesser potential to be not fatal. I was only 19 years old then and to die at such a young age was never the plan and still today it is not the plan.

Brika! Brake!” someone shouted and only then it came to mind.

Without hesitation I did just that and the car just stopped before a truck. Zandi was crying but we were safe like I had promised her we were going to be. People cheered and clapped hands for me as to them I looked as a hero. In actual fact I wasn’t because the one person who saved our lives that day was the person who shouted that we should brake. Like any human being, I decided to take the credit even though deep inside I knew that it wasn’t mine or was
it not?

“Are you guys OK? Are you not injured?” asked Tshepang breathing heavily.

“I’m OK and I think Zandi is OK too, at least physically.” I responded in relief.

“I’m so sorry about that Zandi…” said Tshepang. And Zandi just looked at him and said nothing.

“As long as nothing happened to us, don’t worry friend, just that next time be careful,” I said.

Zandi didn’t want to continue with the journey but would you blame her? We drove her back home and Tshepang and I continued with our journey and caught up with each other’s lives.

From that day I learnt that life is too precious and too short to take for granted. We have to make the best of life within the little time that we’re given to live it. Life is about forgiveness and love and without these what is the point of living? We make mistakes so that we can grow and be better people tomorrow and this is one mistake that shouldn’t be made in this festive season.

We’ve lost too many loved ones during festive seasons and this time around we should try to decrease the rate. This is the time to be happy with our loved ones and not to go through heartaches and burials. I hope people reading this will be extra careful in everything they do so that they can save at least one life out of this festive season.

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Tell us what you think: Why do you think accidents and deaths are high during the festive season?