Traffic incidents

Last weekend I was in my first (and hopefully last) traffic accident in India. I was in the car coming back from Bangalore when two guys on a motorcycle pulled onto the road in front of us. The driver looked back and saw us but seemed to keep moving over towards us. Our driver put on the breaks but we could not prevent from hitting them. I saw it coming but I was hoping it wouldn’t become reality. I watched as we hit them head on and they fell of their motorcycle onto the pavement. When we all finally came to a stop we were sitting in shock. Then the driver stood up. I was so thankful to see that he seemed to be without major injury. But, he kept looking at the ground. He motioned for us to back up. I was really scared of what we might see as we did. He got the motorcycle out from underneath the car and then, to my relief, the second man sat up. He looked a little dazed but other than that he seemed okay. We pulled over to the side of a road and a large crowd started to gather. They came out of nowhere! I’ve heard about the mobs that can quickly develop and so I prayed that things would not get out of hand. At first we didn’t get out of the car for fear of what the gathered crowd would do to us, but then the driver and his wife got out of the car but told me to stay back. Soon the crowd was peering in at this strange foreigner. A third party started deliberating with our driver about what to do. The deliberation would be done by them since police rarely come to the scene of an accident. When our driver asked them for their information, one man acted so offended (he had nothing to do with the accident) and went to punch our driver. Fortunately, a sensible man held him back. We figured that the driver of the motorcycle probably did not have the proper license and registration. The men initially decided that we would take the second man to the hospital, but then they asked us to give them 500 rupees (about $11) and that they would take him themselves. I’m not sure if these guys were just out to make fast cash or if this was a real accident. Regardless, I prayed for wisdom and trust that we did the right thing and I also continue to pray for their recovery, hoping that they really used the money for a check-up.