(Curaçao Chronicle)
To the gentleman in the dark red-coloured sedan yesterday at Piscadera, just a hundred feet away from the spot where another reckless driver took the life of three innocent people just a few years back, I would just like to let you know that we are all okay. Even though you almost ran us over or pretended to run us over, screeching inches past us at high speed without stopping or even slowing down to see if we were all right. I would like to inform you that we were able to pull up to the side of the road in time and brace ourselves for the impact that luckily never came.
It doesn’t matter that we were on road bikes and not mountain bikes, which makes it more dangerous to swerve off the road since the tires are not made for uneven terrain, or that there might have been a raised curb making it impossible to veer to the side unless we recklessly tried to jump it. No worries, there was no raised curb side, no surprise potholes and no punctured tires, just the heart-stopping sound of your ill-attempt at breaking; the fast approaching and nerve-wrecking-steadily-growing beam of your headlights and the sense of seeing our lives flash before our eyes.
If you did it on purpose I hope you enjoyed yourself watching us hurling ourselves to safety; and, if you really did lose control of the car I hope you realized, even if belatedly, that three bikers had to jump out of the way for you, that they might have gotten hurt in the process and perhaps you should have at least slowed down and checked your rear-view mirror to see if anybody had a bad fall because of your recklessness.
It gives me some sort of solace to think that just maybe those three souls were looking after all of us; safeguarding us from you and protecting you from yourself. I am, in any case, extremely grateful to still be here for another day… maybe we will run into each other again tomorrow morning, a honk and wave will do just fine thank you very much!
Tamara Neuman
