Deep Scratch

Is this a self fulfilling prophesy again? Today is the 13th of the month, almost the middle of the month near which I was trying to be extra careful in order not to make a new accident, bump or scratch for my i10. I had in mind to watch out for the 15th of the month, but hey, it happened today, unfortunately.

I was trying to park at night yet the narrow street I was at was so busy. I usually went to that place on Friday mornings when it was rather uncrowded. Today I went on a Wednesday evening. Not finding a place to park I waited a few moments on one side of the road with my emergency flashers on to allow the traffic in this narrow two-way side street to pass. I then reversed moving backwards and stopped to give more rooms for the rest of the traffic to pass by. After the street was finally empty from any traffic, I attempted to move backwards in search for a place to park in. I heard a load a long bumping sound, it came from my left side. It turned out that I was sharply scratching against a perpendicularly parked car on my left side while I was reversing back. I was shocked and extremely unhappy about that.

Later on when I checked the damage after I had parked I found that the scratch in my car was deeper than anyone I had before, yet thank God its length was not much.

Lesson: No matter what, whenever you are reversing make sure you are at a safe distance from cars parked next to you. Then and only then can you start reversing.

Speeding Bump

Seems like it's a self-fulfilling prophesy. Upon looking back at the posts in this blog that included bumps I noticed that the last couple of bumps happened at the 'corners' of a month or at its middle, that is near the 30th or 15th of the month! Today I had a new bump, and hey, today is the 29th of the month!

Okay, this time the bump was really my mistake. I'm even ashamed to disclose completely what happened. But let's just say I was driving in the middle lane and wanted to turn right. I signaled right to move to the right lane first before the right turn came. There was a car in the right lane from behind which did not want me to move to the right lane and kept honking. So I let that car move ahead of me then moved to the right lane behind it. I speeded ahead to catch up with it, and yes that was my mistake, I admit it with a bit of shame. The right turn approached and I did not know if that care in front of me was turning right or going straight, I guess he signaled right but I can't remember now. Anyway, when I got right next to the right turn I discovered he was not turning right and he was going straight. Now here was my real mistake: I speeded ahead turning right yet something I was not expected happened, the car in front of me which did not turn right and was moving straight ahead stopped! That car stopped I guess due to traffic in front of it. I was honking all my way behind that car even before the right turn. I honked, moved forward and turned right bumping the car from its right side rear and my car from its front left side! It was my first time (and hopefully last) to bump my car from the front left side. Now I have my car bumped and scratched from the four corners (funny, but true).

Lesson: Never speed behind a car no matter how much it honked or annoyed you. This is childish behavior. I repeat, this is childish behavior and could cause your car to be scratched or worse yet might result in a serous accident. Don't go crazy when driving. Safety first.

Night Bump while Turning

Yesternight I bumped the car, lightly thank God, while relatively slowly turning right. I bumped into a parked car. It was a considerably soundy bump. It's been a long time (two months exactly) since I last bumped my car.

I'm writing this now so it can be a lesson learnt for me. I was moving off in a side street and about to turn right. I car was coming from the opposite direction. The two mistakes I did were:

1. Turning my lights off!
2. Focusing too much attention on the opposite car approaching while giving less attention to the parked car on my right side.

I thus heard a soundy bumping sound upon my turning to the right. I was unable to notice the car parked at the corner of the road due to my putting the lights off (courtesy to the opposite car approaching) and focusing too much on that approaching car.

Lesson: When turning to the right side always pay attention to any cars parked at the corner of the street. Always keep the lights on at night even if a car is approaching from the opposite direction.

Keys Locked Inside Car

Driving License

Today was my second time to have my key locked inside the car except that this time the car was not parked in front of my home like the first time, instead, it was parked some 30 km away from home in front of the Nasr City Traffic Office located in New Cairo! I went there today in an attempt to get my driving license.

Spare Key

To make a long story short, I finally reached a friend who was available and ready to help. He went to my home, got the spare key and brought it to me in New Cairo. By then it was too late for me to apply for the driving licence which we were informed is applied for from 9 - 11 AM. We drove back home (me and my cousin who accompanied me during this 'trip') a bit unhappy because I did not get the driving licence nor even take the test or apply for the licence yet I was satisfied that my friend had indeed brought me the key. I'll take that as a big learning lesson.

Rear Light Hit

I've also noticed today a small broken piece of glass at my right rear lights. I don't know when that happened and if it had taken place days before without me observing it. Yet I guess the car was hit while parked because that was the light facing the street while the car was parked during the last few days. Yet the rear lights are elevated and are not low enough for a car to come crashing from behind not to mention that I had been parking it too close to the pavement particularly compared to the car parked behind it which makes it unlikely for another car in the street to bump into it. Probably it was someone carrying something heavy accidentally hitting the right side rear light as we had some neighbors moving from their apartment yesterday and taking their furniture with them. I felt sad to see the small crushed glass at the rear light, yet I quickly recovered since I had already went through car scratches twice before.

Lesson: Never lock the car and forget your keys inside. Always take the keys out and put them in your pocked as soon as you turn the car off. Keep a second spare key in your pocket at all times.

Second Accident

Busy Streets

Today was my fourth day in a 5-day driving course. I've finally managed to go for a longer trip, with my driving trainer, around 1 PM when the streets are fairly busy.

Scratch

Apart from the minor scratches I had caused by the end of our trip back home today, I was driving fairly OK. The problem was that he was on the cell phone at the time of this accident which did not give him a chance to provide me with early warning to avoid bumping into the car on my left side having gotten too close to it.

Damage

The external bumpers of the car on my left were detached from the car from the right side all the way till the other side except for a part that was hanging from the far left. This caused the bump or friction to make a great sound. I was a bit shocked and wanted to stop on the right side of the road having though I caused the guy on my left great damage. The trainer told me not to stop and that it was the mistake of the one on my left because he came to close to me from the back. I was relieved, yet perhaps not completely convinced, that it was the other drivers mistake and not mine. Perhaps I should learn and practice defensive driving in the future to avoid accidents in such situations.

Trainer

Despite what happened, I believe that this has been the best driving trainer I had ever had and I did have many (maybe 7 or more, at least 5 of which were paid driving trainers). He is highly experienced in both driving and in teaching others how to drive. I have learnt a lot from him and I'm glad I got to know about him and actually took the course. He is a bit more expensive than the other driving schools but he's worth every penny. Just considering that proper driving training could help you avoid some serious accident in the future which would have costed you a lot of money will make you realize the value of investing in such driving lessons.

Lesson

Thank God today's 'accident' was nothing but a minor scratch at the back left side of the car. Perhaps I can take today's incident as a further learning lesson to avoid serious accidents in the future. I should practice more to avoid the mistakes of others and to maintain a distance at all times from cars at my left and at my right sides at the same time. Yes I should have learnt from my first accident, yet I still do believe today was a considerable improvement. I just need to work on it a bit further and be a bit more careful when driving.

My First Accident!

Thank God only minor scratches at the front right-side bumper were the results of this minor bumping accident the day before yesterday.

False Start

I took the car for a short ride early in the morning as usual for driving practice. As usual, I confined myself to the close by streets which are relatively empty in the early morning (around 6 AM). There were a few cars however on that day since students have been back to school.

Right Side Mirror Closed

Oh, sorry, the above paragraph was not correct. It seems my memory has been failing me ever since this minor accident. Now I remember. I went out at noon the other day and was in a big hurry. I forgot to open the side mirrors because of my haste. After starting to move I realized the mirror were closed. I opened the left-side mirror while I was driving. I did not open the right side mirror however as the trip was short (less than 1 km) and I thought I'd never need them so why stop the car and open them when I was already late and in a hurry plus the trip was a short one. I discovered later that I was wrong later on and that I should have indeed opened the right side mirror.

The Accident

Upon turning right and moving for a short distance I found a few cars coming from behind me. I wanted to turn left. Instead of actually continuing my way forward and turning left I decided to play it 'safe' and make room for the cars behind me to bypass me. My plan was to wait until the pool of cars has finished then turn to the left safely having the street all for myself. That was not exactly what took place. While trying to move to the right in order to make way for the cars behind me to overtake me from the left I actually moved way too much to the right side. A few seconds after hearing the car right behind me honking I bumped into one of the cars parked on my right side. I quickly turned left to lessen the impact of the bump. I heard it well and clear. I still hoped that perhaps nothing happened to the car and moved in my way normally. Having reached my destination, which was not far from the place of the accident, I got out of the car still hoping that nothing has happened. I inspected the car from the right to find, to my dismay, a few minor scratches on the front right-side bumper which had taken the thin blue polish away exposing the grayish color beneath. I was horrified. Well, not actually horrified but was very sad, not that the scratches were severe, but it was because the car was new, only two weeks have passed since I bought it.

Learning Lesson

Although I was unhappy yet I instantly thanked God considering I was lucky to have the accident be a minor one with only minor surface scratches and no real harm to the car. It was just a psychological thing since that car was new and I was, I believed, taking extra care not to bump or scratch it. I looked at the positive point however and took it as a strong learning lesson. Now I need to practice and take extra care not to bump my car from the right side (or the left side for that matter). Perhaps that learning lesson would help me avoid a major accident in the future. I tried to think positively to reduce my deep negative feelings.

Right Side Mirror Open

During the week before the accident I did have this problem of getting too close to the cars parked on the right while I was trying to make way for the cars behind me to overtake me from the left. The thing was that I did have my right side mirror open during those times which acted as a sort of early warning system preventing me to bump the car itself onto the parked cars on the right-side as the back of the mirror did the bumping effectively half closing during the first incident and completely closing during the second one. Perhaps I should take care to open the right side mirror before starting to drive in the future. Better yet, I should practice keeping a distance from the parked cars on the right when trying to make room to the left for cars behind me. I have already started to practice this since yesterday.

Mirror Bumping Again!

Today I was trying to park not far away from the bakery to buy some bread in the morning. Finding a school bus coming towards me I kept to my extreme right while moving slowly forward with the i10. The right side mirror bumped (again) against the car parked on my right side almost completely closing the mirror inwards. Seems I still had not learnt the lesson well. Seems I only to consideration for the right side dimension of the car and do not take into consideration the extra space needed for the mirror (when it's open).

The other repeated mistake I had also done today was parking backwards and not observing the street from behind me during the parking process. I guess I only looked backwards before starting to reverse and park but not during the parking process itself. I was alerted to this mistake (again) upon hearing the slight honking coming from behind.

Although I have repeated those two mistakes today yet I'm still glad since today I drove at the time when school buses and cars were moving around even if I was only confined to the small streets around the house. The second win I had today was buying bread. I almost gave it up not finding a place to park near their and failing to park at a rather small (but not very) space in front of the bakery. Yet at the end and after several 'rounds' I finally decided to park at a place not so far from the bakery. I came back home with a plastic bag with six loafs of bread in it.

Bumping and Stopping

Bumping

Today, Friday, I went out with the car around noon. I parked fine. Yet on my way back, there were too many cars getting out at once and I kept bumping the right mirror at the cars parked on my right side! I kept hearing the bumps, it was not until later that I realized the right mirror was half folded inward which brought me a lot of relief knowing that the bump sounds were those of the side mirror, and not the side of my car, touching the cars parked on my right.

Starting Uphill

As I completed this short row of bumps I wanted to turn right at the next street which was a bit of hill climb. I slowed down as there were cars in front of me till I stopped the car completely. I had a very tough time trying to start the car and make it move once more and ascend and turn right. There was a pool of cars behind me honking, and the street was closed from the other side by cars coming in the opposite direction. The pool of cars behind me kept increasing and the cars kept honking, I was practically closing the street up. I kept trying and trying to start the care and move upwards yet I failed each time. Finally the honks from the cars behind were too much they did not realized I had a problem moving the car forward on that hill-like road. I finally got out of the car and pushed it, at least they will realize like that that the I was unable to move the car forward by driving. Three pedestrians instantly joined me and pushed the car safely out of the way. I then started the car once again taking the advice of a fourth pedestrian on how to move it. I was at last able to make the car move forward safely. I guess I need to practice more how to do a hill climb.

The minor mirror bumps and the stopping motionless upon the hill-like road were two great learning lessons today.