So, let's begin...

It's quite common to see road surfacing material being stock piled beside the roads out here. There was a convenient pile about 5 feet high a few yards away from the bus stop. A couple of friends and I were involved in the usual horse play when a bus pulled up. In a mad scramble to get to the bus before it pulled away, I cop a fall in the pile. Oh, and did I mention that the gravel (road bed grade) is actually 1-2" chunks of crushed granite rock? Or that as a eleven year old I was wearing short pants? Well, one of them left a deep cut on my inner right thigh, four inches from my family jewels. Still have that scar.

1990: Riding a tiger.

(Well almost) School was out a bit early and a friend and I were walking down the road to the next stop (instead of the usual one). The reason was, my friend did not have enough fare for his destination from the place where I usually boarded. So, we were walking along and all of a sudden we realized that a bus had made an impromptu stop about 40 mtrs behind us. (Common on crowded routes. The driver makes an impromptu stop so that the conductor can issue fare tickets to all passengers on the bus.) We still had another 150 or so mtrs to get to the next bus stop, so we broke into a run for the bus. We reached the bus as it started pulling away. My friend went first and got on. But by the time I got a grip on the hand rail, the bus was going at a fair clip, faster than I could run. I didn't have the momentum for the leap that would get me on the the lowest stair, and I was scared to let go. Kind of like riding a tiger. Luckily one of the passengers riding the running board grabbed me under the armpit and hauled me in. Darn dicey that.

1992: Clipped.

Imaging a bus stop that has no bay. The outer most lane is the bay. There is a bus broken down about 6 mtrs ahead of the bay. Any bus leaving the stop has to pass the broken down bus at an angle. There was the usual scramble for a bus leaving the stop. Five of us. Four got in, I was the last. The parked bus clipped my shoulder and dropped me to the ground. Missed clipping my skull instead. Winded, nothing broken or damaged. Yet another close call.

1995: Please remain seated.

To this day I can't figure out what exactly happened. My commute was longer and I was coming up to the stop where I had to change buses. I noticed the bus that I was in pass the bus that I had to change to. Rather than wait for the next stop where I could change, I knew that there was another intermdiate stop for my target bus. Unfortunatly the one I was riding would not stop there. Hopping off a bus was nothing new to me, I'd been doing it for six years by then. So I got to the running board and assumed the position. At the right moment I leant back, dropped off the bus into a running motion. Normally I would hit the ground running and peel off at an angle to the bus heading for the kerb. I think I just might have leaned back a little too much. Or maybe the bus accelerated at that very moment. The next thing I knew, my feet flew up and I sat down *hard* on the road. By hard, mean like a ton of bricks. Thankfully I was wearing jeans. But still I couldn't sit properly for the next three days.

1996: Supports may not be as strong as they look.

This was by far the closest shave I ever had. This should atleast earn me a honorable mention, though I escaped with zero injuries. Otherwise, I was 18, sober as a judge (In fact I am a teetotaller even today), and a virgin to boot. The bus was barelling down to the lights at a decent 30-40 km/hr. I was in position. I sprinted, lined up and boarded. The sequence normally goes this way: grab handrail, leap to running board, steady up. But somehow today it was changed a little. I made the leap first, a split second before grabbing the rail. Did I mention the poor maintenance, and hordes of youngsters who hang off the rail as a matter of routine? The welds normally dont last more than six months. This rail, was hanging by a thread. So back to the story, I leapt a split second before I grabbed the rail, and when I grabbed it, it came off in my hand. Had I grabbed it when I was leaping, there would have been absolutely no way for me to retain momentum or balance. I would have been road pizza as there were two buses bearing down on the one I was trying to get into. Well, the driver and conductor had a laugh about it when I presented the rail to the driver. It was supposed to be fixed the next day in the shop.

Submitted on 07/25/2013

Submitted by: Mekkanik
Reference: Personal account

Copyright © 2013 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
A very amusing and well-written story which deserves to be seen, though it would seem the bus itself was fully half to blame!!! Thanks!

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
I think James is correct in that the bus is as much to blame! Thanks for sharing the stories.

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