To some people buying lottery tickets may pay off eventually, but not to the driver of this Perodua Axia.
It may not be the true story of this unfortunate incident, but everyone who has seen this picture would have this thought come across their minds: There is not really that big of a rush to buy toto, even after the 4D shops not being open for the last 3 months during the MCO.
Thus far, there is no concrete information on what exactly happened here. The driver might not even be going for a flutter on the lottery. Based on the sole picture, it is clear however that the damage sustained by this careening Axia is quite bad.
Most of the damage inflicted on the blue supermini is mainly cause by the impact with the protruding second floor foundation. The driver’s side of the Axia is completely wrecked, with no straight panel left on that side. Both doors on the right looks particularly mangled too, so we do hope that the driver is ok after this incident. Based on the fall too, it would be sensible to presume that there would be frontal damage and the Axia will most likely be totalled as a result of this accident.
As for the cause of the accident, this could be a simple case of mistaking the pedals. Based on the trajectory of the Axia, it would not be entirely unreasonable to presume that the driver was just parking the car but stepped on the accelerator instead of the brakes. The case of mistaken pedals happens more often that one might think, especially among elderly drivers.
Sensible more mature people who stopped making lottery related jokes have raised the question of the necessity of bollards, particularly on pedestrian walkways. The addition of bollards will have some effect on preventing these incidents from hurting pedestrians when an incident like this occurs. However these obstacles will also impede people carrying large loads or using trolleys moving goods from the road to the shops, so it might not be the ideal application in most areas. There is also an external cost in putting up these bollards that will need to be considered.
We do hope that the driver managed to come out of this incident unharmed and if the intention was actually to buy a lotto ticket, it would be a nice ending to this otherwise unfortunate incident if the driver did indeed win with the number bought, as the repairs are most likely going to be costly. To outside punters though, with the car number plate of 238; a 4D number does not make.
