Haiti Unpaved Road Dangers - I Nearly Killed Two Little Children!

Unpaved Dirt Road in Haiti

What a scary moment this was for me?

On a paved road, I could have easily avoided these little children in a split second without loosing total control of the car as modern cars are well designed and equipped for evasive driving BUT... When you have rocks and dirt under your tires and you attempt to avoid an obstacle, it feels like driving in the snow drunk with no brakes in a winding road.

Within a split second I had to decide:

• The lives of the two little children?
• The lives of the eight people inside the car?
• A totally wrecked car?
• all of the above?

"Screw the car," I thought.

No time to hit the brakes... So I swerved the car to the right, avoided the children by inches (I thought I did!), then swerved back onto the dirt road to avoid crashing head on into the mountain side. That's when the rear tires lost traction. Next thing I know, the big SUV is skidding sideways down the slope into a ravine. It was just a matter of time before the car flipped over... I felt it... We're dead!

There's eight people in the car and only four seat belts... need I say more?

By the grace of the All Mighty and my "sang-froid," I managed to prevent the car from flipping over. Don't ask me how... but I drove it straight into a mud basin, way off course, down the ravine.

When the metal monster finally stopped, the entire hood of the car was buried in mud... the dirty and smelly water started to sip into the car... I heard NOT a single "OUTCH" inside that car... I heard NOT a single "AMWEYYYY" on the road...

"The children must be OK," I said to myself!

"We're not dead! We're not dead!" one of the passengers shouted.

"OK then," another one said. "Let's get this thing out of the mud so we can go home."

I sat behind the wheel. I didn't say word. I didn't know whether I was happy or in shock!

"Don't let the car die," someone said, "Try to keep the engine running." By that time, water started to fill up the cup holders between the front seats.

As my sister ran down the hill from the car that was in front of us to see if we were alive or dead, she overheard one of the kids say: "Mesye... Mwen we-m pa mouri jodi-a, mwen pap mouri anko!"

Thanks to all the peasants of "Nan Papaye" who came to help us, we managed to get the car out of the mud and back on dry land.

We were all OK... The children were OK... Though there was a mud bath inside the car, not a scratch on it.

Everyone single person who witness the event and everybody in the car couldn't understand the fact the no one was injured. They kept on congratulating me about my driving skills...

One of the passengers, a police officer, said to me: "Komatchouboulout! Ou fe de kout volan man epi-w sove lavi tout moun? Gad'on chofe! Ou kondi machinn na sou kan wi man... Ti moun yo pa mouri non man!"

I just got lucky if you ask me! I just used up one of my NINE lives!

I guess you will agree that this story has a happy ending but let me tell you, the majority of the stories that start like this in Haiti do not end with a happy ending.

Yeap... My AC doesn't work... The car smells like a swamp buggy... but who cares!

I really hate seeing horses, donkeys, pedestrians, and little children of all things sharing the main roads in Haiti with motor vehicles.

There is no barrier between these animals and pedestrians and these metal monsters.

A lot of times, when a driver finds himself in this situation, he has to decide between the life of the pedestrian and the life of each passenger inside that vehicle.

I know I've been talking a lot about the roads in Haiti but I guess What I am really talking about is saving human lives.

A human being has no business being on the path of a 5,000 pound vehicle. There should not be any unpaved roads in Haiti except for rural and agricultural use. It is deadly.

If you take the time to flatten the road (Terre Batu) then why not throw some pavement over it?

Everyone in charge, please take notice.

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