One Friday afternoon on the eve
of a national holiday you arrive at the matatu terminus at 4.30pm. You have
been held up at the office preparing for this long weekend. The process took
longer than anticipated and you must travel.
On checking at the terminus,
there is one vehicle and you are the fifth passenger. You need seven more
passengers to embark on the safari. At 5.45pm you only need one person. The
driver strolls and ignites the vehicle in anticipation that as soon as the last
person boards, the vehicle takes off.
The driver appears obviously
nervous and a bit confused. He is actually nervous. He fumbles his pockets and
finally appears to have remembers something. He opens the small cabinet at the
vehicle dashboard and retrieves two small paper bags and a bottle of water. He
does this as he engages you in conversation. You discuss the happenings of the
day, politics and other matters.
As he proceeds, you notice he has
some prescription medicines. Curiously you look. One set is written Tegretol
200mg and another is Panadol. He blames his headaches on the extreme
temperatures of the day. He looks drunk but there is no alcoholic smell. After brief
thought, it hits you! The guy is actually epileptic for 4yrs now. The driver explained after an accident he
started having the ‘problem’ but of late due to increased workload he has been forgetting
to take his drugs regularly. As such he had fainted twice in the last 3months.
Immediately you appreciate that
there is a problem. You may get an accident along the way should the driver
develop the ‘problem’. The first attempt is to talk to him that it would be
better to look for another driver and for him to get and get some rest. He vehemently
refuses and turns very irate accusing you of trying to dictate him at his place
of work. You get too polite but to no avail. The other passengers notice you are
in argument.
As a conscientious person you
decide to postpone you journey and alight. Wait a minute. You decide to inform
other passengers about your fears. They retort that the driver has been on the
road the whole day and nothing has happened. In addition they invoke religion
and say if God planned for them to have an accident, it will happen anyway. Darkness
is fast approaching and as you protest, the other passengers become violent
verbally and threaten to fix you if you continued with the wild allegations.
Finally, you make the final
decision. Disembark from the vehicle and leave the scene with regret that your
passion to assist has brought you so much anguish. Fortunately you get a room
at the town and postpone your travel to the following day.
While taking your meals, you
notice some breaking news on the TV that a 13seater matatu has veered off the
road at a sharp bend and killed all the occupants. They give details and you
later realize it is the same vehicle you alighted from.
You are overcome with grief and
leave your meals half way to spend a sleepless night tossing and turning in bed
not sure whose fault it is…………………………………………………
