I hit a kid with my car

I had one of the most scariest experiences of my life on Monday afternoon. Rachel and I were in my car and were coming home after spending a long day looking at possible rental properties.

We were coming off the highway at Cornwall St, and there are 2 sets of lights quite close to each other, and kind of on a bend. Anyway, we went through the first set, and we were stopped in a long line of traffic at the second. The lane to my right was almost empty, so I checked over my shoulder, indicated, and pulled out and started accelerating.

Then, however, all I remember was hearing this awful 'klunk' and seeing this kid, an Aboriginal boy and probably 11 or 12 and who was riding his bike, landing half-way up the bonnet of my car! I can't quite remember, but I'm sure I screamed an expletive or two, and I don't think Rachel, in the passenger seat beside me, was too quiet either.

What had happened was that the boy had gone to cross over the 4 lanes of traffic on his bike (in the middle of the road... not at the intersection), and had gone in front of the car I was originally behind. Luckily, I was stationary before I pulled out, and only accelerated a couple of metres before I collected him...

Anyway, the kid hit the bitumen, and then got up and ran to the side of the road. I immediately got out of the car and went after him. He was screaming a bit and holding his face, and for the first 30 seconds I thought he was hurt badly. I don't really remember thinking anything at the time... just being very paniked, and trying to sum up the situation as quickly as I could. He wasn't wearing a helmet either, which I was really concerned about.

After he calmed down a bit I was able to look at his face. He had a couple of bad grazes - one on his chin, another on his cheek, and another on his right eyebrow. Apart from another bruise or two, he seemed to be ok... nothing broken or damaged otherwise.

I think it was at this point where I finally exhaled...

While I was checking him out, Rachel had moved his bike from in front of my car and pulled it off the road. He was actually with 3 of his friends (about a similiar age, none of which were wearing helmets either) who had come over to him by this stage and were standing around. After I made sure he was ok, I went and moved my car (as it was still in the middle of the road and blocking 2 lanes of traffic) and parked in the nearest driveway. Even though the kid was looking ok, we decided to call an ambulance anyway, which arrived about 15 minutes later.

While we were waiting, his 'mates' passed the time by rolling and smoking some joints and yelling at people in cars who were looking at the scene to "fuck off, pooftas". A reminder that these boys were all probably 11 or 12. Nice one, lads...

When the ambulance arrived, we explained what had happened. They checked the kid out, but didn't seem all that concerned. They applied a few bandaids, and, seeing as the kid wasn't wearing a helmet, recommended that they take him to hospital to do some tests. He didn't seem to like that idea too much. They had a look at my car, but, apart from a few scratches, there didn't look like there was any damage. Soon after, they said there was no problem and that we were fine to go... however, Rachel was tempted to stay behind and strangle the 'little fuckers'.

As you can imagine, I was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. I have only ever had one accident, in 2002 not long after I got my licence, where I backed into a post at uni and had to get a rear brake-light replaced. It sure isn't every day that you see children flying off the bonnet of your car... and it sure is a shock when it happens. I can't believe I didn't see him, though... I think I 'heard' him before I actually 'saw' him. I know that I didn't do anything wrong, but I still feel bad. I suppose he was really very lucky, though. If a car was coming around the corner at 60km/h and had collected him he would've had no chance.

Drive safely, people.