Odd Accident

Simone sat in the waiting room, her arms crossed, her eyes darting from person to person, beads of sweat forming along her furrowed forehead and dripping off to the side with a silent ``plop''.

She didn't escape unscathed. Minor abrasions here and there, a sprain in her shoulder and mild whiplash from the sudden braking of the car. For all purposes, she was fine and she knew it.

Tom was less lucky.

They were driving along the new highway, with Simone as the driver and Tom sitting shotgun. The signs on the highway were fairly cryptic, and she was trying her best to navigate her way through while keeping an eye on the road. It was a relatively quiet drive, no problems right there. That is, until they reached viaduct.

That car came from no where. Simone was driving at a steady eighty kilometres an hour, the standard speed for the highway. The offending car was on the ramp through the viaduct, speeding, and tried to merge into the lane that Simone was on. It didn't slow down; it was speeding up. Simone's eyes registered the problem and her reflex was to slow down as fast as she could, jamming the brakes hard and pulling up her hand brake. But the offending car's driver was acting weird. Instead of keeping his acceleration going to overtake Simone, he slowed down a little, seemingly timing himself to cause a collision.

Simone's car stopped hard, and the car that filtered in smashed into the passenger side, crushing it deep. Tom was initially sleeping when the sudden deceleration from Simone's braking woke him up, and the collision shook him to full alert, just in time to register the excruciating pain that had started in his lower extremities. The impact caused Simone to jerk uncontrollably from her seat, restrained by the seat belt, incurring some abrasions and a whiplash. She was shocked but alert. She glanced over to look at Tom. It wasn't good -- his legs were pinned by the crushed vehicle.

She turned herself slowly to look at the other car. The driver was no where in sight. She saw that the passenger door was open, and a man of short stature was running down the viaduct ramp. As the rescue team came to extricate Tom, and the police came to ask her questions, she realised that the driver had manipulated the car from the passenger side to cause the serious collision since the police couldn't find any body on the driver side of the offending car that was crushed beyond repair.

Simone sat there in the waiting room, glancing from person to person. Tom had been in the operating theatre for quite a while now, and it was not certain if they could save his legs. She hoped to herself that he would be fine, and that they would learn who it was who tried to cause them such grievous hurt.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 01-Jan-2014 15:11:59)