The day I went off public transport forever.

This incident is a real life event that happened to me in 2011 coming home from school and I have never been the same since.

It was an ordinary school day on a Tuesday and the minibus that was owned by a local taxi company that picked me up and dropped back home everyday school day arrived to pick me up at the usual time and it was always the same driver. On the way to school that day the journey was completely normal and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I arrived at school with the other students on the minibus. We went to school and did my usual lessons on Tuesdays as normal.
When it came to home time we left school and got on the same minibus and with the same driver as normal. But when we said hi to the driver at home time he was really grumpy which wasn't really like him. I thought nothing of it after that.
We got about 3/4 of the way home when of a sudden we went on the grass verge, the driver tried to correct it but we ended up fish tailing, swerving from 1 side of the road to the other for about 1/4 mile before the minibus started flipping and flipped around and round 12 times before coming to a stop on its roof.
The people in the car behind stopped and started smashing the front wind screen but we couldn't get out because we were either injured or trapped. Luckily I only ended up with no skin around my waist from the seat belt digging in and I was red raw for about 2 weeks. The guy sat behind me in minibus actually had to unclip my seat belt so I could get free and I returned the favour just as the emergency services arrived.
The firemen broke the front windscreen and told the walking wounded which was me and about 5 or 6 others to climb out. I got checked over by a on site doctor and was fine apart from my seat belt burns and being in shock which was obvious for all of us.
After I got checked over the policeman came and took a statement and then I phoned my mum. I told her what happened and was trying to tell her where I was but she has absolutely no sense of direction. So she phoned the taxi company who thought it was a prank call at first but they eventually told one of the other drivers to do the route just in case.
The second taxi driver arrived just as a couple of the other students were being taken to hospital. One had a broken collar bone and the other had suffered whiplash. The air ambulance then arrived to air lift the taxi driver to a specialist hospital. The second taxi driver then took me and the other walking wounded home.
The next day the policeman who took the statement came to my house to tell me the taxi driver was twice the amount over the drink drive limit and he was denying he drunk anything. At court the taxi driver got a 22 month driving ban and court costs.
Because of this I now can't go anywhere near a bus or taxi without having an anxiety attack or having flashbacks of the incident, which is not nice as I'm not allowed to drive a car because of my epilepsy. So I have no way of getting around anymore.

Published on 26-Jul-2016

Submit your story

This post was submitted as part of 'HappyBox’ campaign. Take a peek at our other submissions and get involved by creating your own content!

1
open

HappyBox

Feeling fragile? Create a HappyBox to help you through those low moments.