Essay/Debate on “A Lucky Escape”

Essay on “A Lucky Escape

Imagine that you had a very lucky escape from a situation in which you could otherwise have lost your life. Write a vivid account of the moments before, during and after the episode (this is what we want to practically do today)

Several years ago, I nearly lost my life. Father and I had gone in a lorry to convey his planks home. Father’s 200 planks were loaded in the open lorry. On top of this was I, sitting on the planks. The lorry had an uneasy task trudging up the steep hill Moving like a centipede, it finally wept its way up. Though tarred, the road was very bad with so many bends. Finally the top was gained.

The descent began. If the lorry could fight its way up, it should successfully creep down the slope, I assured. myself Soon, we were cascading down, fast. To our right was a seemingly abysmal valley; to the left was an unscaleable, rugged cliff. The lorry gained speed every second. There was a noticeable period of silence among the six souls in the lorry and in the forest around. Everything seemed to stand still, except the lorry. The brake had failed. Yet the end of the steep slope was not in sight. One by one, the three lorry boys jumped down. I could not.

The question was not whether there would be an accident. It was how. It was on whether there would be a survivor. The lorry boys doubted if there could be; they jumped off. Soon, I was alone on the planks. On and on, the lorry sped and with it myself, the driver, and my father in front with him. With a deafening sound, it crashed heavily on its side on the hot tarmac. On landing, the 200 planks flew across the road and far into the valley on the other side.

I had been catapulted from the top of the lorry along with the planks. Father hurried out to look for me; seeing me, he burst into tears; the blood and my position told him I could not have survived. Others arrived and calmed him down. Together, they removed all the planks. It was then that we all discovered the secret of my survival – the large spare Tyre next to which I had sat on the planks in the lorry. When disaster struck, the spare Tyre and I were flung out together, landing us as neighbors on the tarmac. The planks raining down fell on the Tyre, creating a cave for me, thus harboring me from the tragedy. The planks found the spare Tyre but missed me. It was pure luck, an act only God could understand. I was carried into another lorry which stopped soon afterwards. Wesley Guild Hospital was still far away. The passenger lorry was slow but although my pains cried for immediate treatment, I was not very anxious to see the driver speeding away like the first. My thoughts were on how death had narrowly missed me.