I was driving down the St. Finbarr's College Road, Akoka this evening at approximately 5pm, when I saw a female accidentally run into the path of a commercial bus (the 14-seater Volks Wagens we call kombi here) coming from the direction I was facing. The bus must have been going at close to 50km per hour. The road had no divider and she ran right into the bus. The vehicle lost its windscreen, she rolled a distance of about 10 feet from the impact, and then lay still.

The conductor, hanging from the open door of the moving bus as they are wont to do here, fell to the asphalt too but was unharmed. My car and the one in front of me stopped in the middle of the road, feet away from the inert body of the girl who looked about 25 years old and 5' 6" or 5' 7" in height.

I caught myself frozen with both arms upraised as if trying to ward off a blow and around me, for a few seconds all was still. Then passersby seemed to jump into action. Two men ran to her and carried her up and away from the road into a nearby compound. I saw her raise a leg, bend it at the knee and keep it in that position as they moved her. (It was a curious posture, almost as if she were just relaxing). Many people followed the carriers.

-The folks who carried her didn't check to see if she had broken anything before hauling her away.

-Just across the road from me, a woman selling food in a shed and who had seen the accident, had her hands on her head in shock. She appeared to be praying. I said a prayer for the accident victim's well-being too.

-As I drove away, I noticed that just four houses away, a man was engrossed in the newspaper he was reading, having no idea of the drama that had played out just a short distance from him.

-The house after this had another woman haggling with a hawker over fish. They were oblivious of the incident too.

Life goes on, the pain of some not being realized by the majority. I pray this young woman becomes as strong as she was before the accident.