Tuesday 9 April 2013

Short Fiction (2) – Who killed this man?




One fateful day, a man was driving from one city to another. He then came across a group of armed robbers on the highway. He managed to meander his way through and escaped the robbers. Thinking that the robbers were in hot pursuit, he drove with high speed into the nearby town hitting a pedestrian in the process. He thought of stopping to help the man he hit but fear of the robbers he was running from and the wrath of the people around who witnessed the accident made him run away from the scene to a police station in the next town to report his ordeal. Sadly, the pedestrian he hit was recently diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease. He was going to die without a kidney transplant which he could not afford. A lot was going through his mind when he got hit as he attempted to cross the road.

Meanwhile, a Good Samaritan at the scene of the accident decided to use his vehicle to rush the critically wounded pedestrian to a nearby government hospital. In his haste to get there he was speeding and in order to avoid a head-on collision with a drunken motorist who was overtaking in a dangerous bend, he swerved into a nearby bush. His vehicle overturned several times. He sustained minor injuries because he was wearing a seatbelt but his wounded passenger whom he was rushing to the hospital had no seatbelt on, thereby sustaining more injuries. Eventually, another vehicle came along and they were taken to the government hospital. Unknown to them, health workers were on strike and the hospital was not functional. They left for a private hospital where they were refused treatment without the presence of a policeman and/or deposit down payment. At long last, they got attended to in another hospital where the wounded pedestrian was declared BID (brought in dead).

Who is responsible for his death?

a. The 1st driver blames the robbers he was running from and
the sick pedestrian who didn't pay attention to the road before crossing. Maybe the pedestrian was suicidal because of his terminal illness.
b. Witnesses of the 1st accident blame the hit-and-run driver.
c. Witnesses of the 2nd accident blame the speeding Good Samaritan and the drunk driver who was overtaking in a dangerous bend.
d. The Good Samaritan blames (1) hit-and-run driver. (2) Drunk driver (3) health workers who were on strike (4) the government whose failures led to the workers' strike.
e. Some would say the dead man just had a bad day with a string of misfortunes. Was it is his time? Who is to blame?

Lesson: sometimes, life can be complicated. The truth of daily living can sometimes be very complicated.

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