Knocking down a policeman

While we were in Macau, Sam got involved in an accident!

He was talking with his friend while driving on the highway and the car in front of him suddenly stopped. He could not brake in time or the brakes failed. To avoid hitting the car in front in the fast lane, he swerved to the right and hit a policeman on a motorbike on the left lane! The motorbike was not too badly damaged but my Honda was with the left side heavily indented and the mirror bent downwards.

Thank goodness that no car ran over the policeman otherwise this would have been very serious. My son did not run away from the scene of the accident but instead was responsible to take the policeman to the clinic and paid for his medical treatment. Cost Sam about RM138 for the medical treatment. He then lodged a report. Sam later told me that it never came to his mind to hit and run from the scene. He felt responsible for the accident.

However as the policeman did not want to put Sam in the lock-up (apparently knocking down a policeman is a serious offence) he lodged a report taking responsibility for the accident.

When I met the policeman later to sort out the amount to pay him for the repairs on the bike, he told us that he did not want to put Sam behind bars (remand) as going to the lock-up is a curse. Even the Chinese do not want to be locked up or hand-cuffed. Once you are locked up, apparently you will end up in the lock up again!

He said that his report was lodged to protect Sam as he was only a student and his driving licence would be suspended since he knocked down a policeman. 

We managed to negotiate RM1,500 as settlement (which was by no means a small amount) which money would have to come out from Sam's monthly allowance of RM200 per month.

I want to give thanks for this incident as Sam was emotionally affected by it and cried while I was scolding him (quite badly) on this matter. He cried and said that he just wanted to die.

All things worked out for good to those who love the Lord and to those who are called according to His purpose:

1. Tim's good friend got a car repair job repairing our Honda. If the accident had not happened Tim's good friend would have no business and according to the car repair man, jobs have been hard to come by and business is slow. This seems to be the case as I spoke to different people over this past week or so. A lawyer told me yesterday that his work has slowed down and bills were not being paid. 

2. The policeman was able to give a warning to Sam not to drive fast in future. I did asked the policeman "what do you think was the cause of the accident?" He said that he was driving too fast in the fast lane. If his speed was slower he could have slowed down in time to avoid knocking into his motorbike.

3. My son promised to drive safe and to drive slow next time.

All in the following people benefited from the accident:

1. Wah Chai who repaired the car and who was grateful for the business as his business has slowed down considerably (yes, strange as it may be there are people earning an honest living from the misfortunes of others)

2. The policeman who would have got some extra cash from me for his spending money which is something that I would never know for sure although he said that his repairs will cost about RM3k plus.

"Never mind" I told Sam "We just bless him as his pay is not very high". Apparently the policeman said his pay is about RM1k plus only! I believe this is his basic pay not his pay plus allowance.

3. Samuel - who has learnt precious lessons on driving from me especially on defensive driving.

A few days after this Karpal Singh (Tiger of Jelutong) died in a car accident. His driver who had many speeding summonses crashed into a slow moving lorry in front and caused the car to careen to the divider. Karpal and his personal assistant died in the accident. If the driver had not been driving fast he would have stopped in time to avoid hitting the lorry. 

Speed does not pay. Speed kills. May all my children and all my grandchildren learn something from this entry in the family blog.