Chapter twenty one
Car Crash.
1987-1989
I instinctively brace my arms against the steering wheel and push hard on the brake. I manage to keep clear of the oncoming cars. When I look back, there is a Morris 1100 inside the back of my Cortina. His horn is blowing and the driver is slumped over the steering wheel.
I try to get out but all 4 doors are jammed. My car is bent up like a boomerang. Then two teenagers come running up and ask me if I'm alright.
“I'm alright. How's the other driver?” I ask.
“He's out to it and as drunk as a skunk. We were right behind him and we saw you from half a mile away, but he just kept on going, right into the back of you.”
“I can't open any of the doors,” I tell them. They walk around the car and say the front passenger door looks most likely. They pull on the door handle while I give it several hard kicks from inside. Eventually it bursts open and I scramble out. Then I duck back inside again to turn off the ignition, to reduce the chance of fire.
Then two tow trucks arrive while I'm checking the other driver. He's still out cold and has blood all over his face. They move him off the horn. Then my body starts shaking all over and this big Maori tow truck driver puts his arm around my shoulder, to comfort me.
“You'll be alright mate. It's the shock starting to set in. Happens to everybody.” Then we hear the sirens of the ambulance, fire engine and traffic patrol car.
“Have you had any alcohol to drink tonight sir?” the traffic officer asks me. “No, I haven't,” I reply.
They use two tow trucks to pull our cars apart, while the firemen stand by with their hose at the ready. Then they put the drunk driver into the ambulance and take him to Auckland Hospital where they find that he's two and a half times over the legal alcohol limit. His car has no registration or warrant of fitness, four bald tyres and no seat belt. To make things worse, he's not insured and is a declared bankrupt. Getting money out of Gary Ross Moffatt is like getting blood out of a stone.
My car is written off and it takes three months to get any money from State Insurance. In fact