IMAGINE you manning a ticket booth to a concert. You've been on duty for quite sometime when you had to go to the bathroom. You ask a friend to take your place for a while as you go inside for a potty break. Then, moments later, a sickening squeal of tires would lead you to find a car turning turtle down the road, plowing the ticket booth and the people guarding it.

You have been minutes away from tragedy.

***

It just jolted my senses, hearing this story. Last Tuesday, a freak accident happened in campus outside the Kamia Residence Hall. A BMW came crashing down the street right outside the dorm, critically injuring 3 people and hurting 2 others. The victims were Kamia residents who were just outside the dorm, guarding the ticket booth to Kamia's 'Death to Pop' concert. As reports go, the drivers who were behind the wheel were drunk. Some people said they were really going fast, probably beyond 100 kph. Anyway, they were trying to avoid a tricycle/pedicab when they swerved and turned turtle.

And they were inside the campus.

I feel very much for the victims. I don't know them, but hearing the story just made my stomach turn. I mean, what happened to them was nothing short of horrible. And last I heard, one person already died. They were just innocent bystanders minding their own business, then suddenly this mad car from nowhere bore down and even took one of them.

The driver, a rich kid, just got off with a light bail. I heard the bail was around Php 8,000. Where's the justice in that?

***

Looking from the perspective I pointed out earlier, what if you were the friend that got away from the scene? I heard this story from a friend, a dormer who lived at Sampa, the dorm beside Kamia Residence Hall. The girl reportedly cried because she was supposed to be the one at the scene.

I guess it was one of those situations where you aren't really sure of how you are supposed to feel. You don't know whether to feel thankful for escaping such disaster or sorrow for someone who shouldn't have been there in the first place.

It just got me thinking. It set off a lot of whys. The circumstances are just unbelievable. I mean, who goes beyond 100 kph on a school road? I mean, we're not talking about a national road here! And what about pedicabs and tricycles in UP? They are not common site in the acad oval and areas near it. And its not everyday that lots of people loiter around Kamia and Sampa.

A lot of musings entered my mind. Why was that girl able to escape death while the other didn't? Why of all places was the road outside Kamia scene for such tragedy? Why them? It all seemed unjust. At one point, I was inclined to believe that some greater force was behind all this. I don't know how or why the reasons for such, but there must be something behind it or else everything that happened wouldn't just make sense.

The incident also got me thinking about the brevity of life, of how finite we are in this universe's existence. Only one whiff and, puff!, we're gone. Then my mind wandered about justice. Where is justice in this world? Why did that irresponsible kid got off so lightly? Just because his family was influential?

In a way, I am questioning about why God let this happen, but this is not to say that I am blaming God for what happened. Of course, my philosophy teacher would vehemently argue with me. Question God! Question justice!

Of course, I have no answer for this. I am still trying to figure out what just happened.

The girl who reportedly died was a bright student. How sad that she had to go that way.