A "Yikes!" Moment

This morning, I was on the way to see Casa Loma and the Spadina Museum. I got off the subway and walked up Spadina until it ended at Davenport. There was an area with benches right at the corner of Spadina and Davenport, so I sat there for a few minutes, looking over my Toronto guidebook, and steeling my strength for climbing all those stairs leading to the Casa Loma and Spadina Museum. (I think those stairs are called the Baldwin stairs, but don't quote me on that.) So I got up, crossed the street, and went up the first flight of stairs. I then heard a loud noise below. I turned around, and saw a car, swerving to the right to avoid a line of cars behind the traffic light on Davenport. The car hit the benches I was sitting at, and then after rolling over on the roof, came to rest between two trees on Spadina. People came running to see what they can do to help. My thoughts turned to an elderly Chinese woman and (presumably) her son, who were sitting next to me on the bench. I hope they moved away, because if they didn't, the car would have hit them and then ...

There were two people in the car, and they were able to crawl out of the car. The emergency personnel responded within 5 minutes of the accident, and within minutes, an ambulance, a couple of police cars, and a couple of fire trucks were on the scene. It's a lucky thing that only two people were hurt and that no one was killed. Steam emanated from the car, which the fire personnel quickly dealt with.

So after sitting there, stunned, I continued my trek up the stairs and then onward to Casa Loma, followed by the Spadina Museum.

After I saw both places, I went back to where the accident occurred this morning. It didn't hit me until then about the timing of it all. The car came careening by 5 minutes after I left the bench and crossed the street. How would things have turned out if I were still sitting on the bench ...

After pondering that for a while, and seeing the trees and such uprooted, and bark stripped, I left the area, headed back to the subway, and went back to the heart of downtown Toronto.