Crash Course 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
One cold winter night I was waiting in a car park for a taxi to arrive. Someone else was also waiting for a taxi some distance away. 4 young louts were stood near a car, shouting, yelling obscenities and generally being idiots. Suddenly the power went out and plunged the car park into darkness.
A few seconds later, the car roared into life, its headlights came on, and it zoomed towards the innocent bystander. Understandably he fled for his life. Then there was a crunch, followed by a crashing noise. The car park went back into darkness briefly, before the power came back and the streetlights came back on. All except for one of them. The lout’s car had crashed into this lamppost, severing the power lines, and the remains of a bench nearby indicated what they had initially crashed into. Since they had probably been knocked out by the impact (that’s what I thought anyway), I ran over to a phone box intending to call the police. No sooner had I dialled the third 9, than I heard a crack, followed by a huge bang. The driver had tried to move the car off the lamppost, but managed to short-circuit the power lines. The electricity ignited the fuel tank without too much trouble, setting the car on fire. Two of them died instantly, the third was rescued by the fire brigade but died before he got to hospital, while the fourth was also rescued but died after a week in a coma. The bystander was understandably shaken, but was unhurt.
Surprisingly enough, the autopsy failed to show the presence of any illegal substances, and their blood alcohol wasn’t that far above average. The punchline to the whole thing was that the family of one of the deceased sued the local council for placing the bench and lamppost in ‘inappropriate locations’.
Submitted on 12/07/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
Personal Account, late 1989
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