It took me four years to realize that by driving a car to work every day, I was in fact severely harming the environment. To make things worse I didn’t arrange to pick up any colleagues along the way or organize a car pool to optimize the passenger capacity in the vehicle. I have been wasting space that could have ferried at least four more people to work with me; I could have saved money, which could have been used to help those who were in need, most of all I could have drastically cut down on my carbon footprint. Just by carrying out this simple act of driving to work every day, I was unknowingly wasting valuable resources whilst contributing to global warming!

We must carry out our tasks according to principles, and not let our principles be compromised by our tasks.

This sudden awareness brought about the decision to change my irresponsible habit. After much deliberation, I decided that selling my car was the righteous thing to do; I sold my car in April 2010. Letting go of my car was not easy for me, as it was the first car that I owned after obtaining my driving license.

In February of 1983, I was involved in a motorcycle accident that resulted in the loss of vision in my right eye. Since then, every application I made for a driving licence had been turned down due to my visual impairment. I had all but given up hope of obtaining a vehicle license of any kind in this lifetime. Then in January 2005 whilst accompanying my wife to the driving centre, I found out that the law regarding “monocular-visioned drivers” had been changed, which is why I was only able to obtain my driving licence in October 2005. It goes without saying how much driving meant to me and why I valued this opportunity to be on the road again.

In retrospect, after having sold my car, I could not help but remember the vehicle, not as a four-wheeled machine but more as a family friend. In times of emergency it had always performed, it always brought us safely to wherever we needed to go, and it protected us from the scorching sun and the pouring rain while ferrying us to our destinations. But most of all, it brought back fond memories of how it was an important catalyst in our many adventures of rendering compassion to others.

My faithful car had always played an instrumental role in ferrying me and my fellow volunteers on our regular visits to care recipient’s homes and various Tzu Chi activities, but apart from these regular events some very memorable experiences come to mind:

Hot Wheels
The greatest happiness comes from giving and in helping others.

One Saturday morning while driving to Jing Si Hall for an event, my wife and I decided to stop over at a coffee shop along the way to have our breakfast. At the traffic junction near the coffee shop, we noticed an elderly man in a wheel-chair wheeling across the street along the pedestrian crossing. As he neared the end of the crossing he appeared to encounter difficulty ascending the footpath. This caused his wheel-chair to keep backing up into the street putting him in the path of traffic. The vehicles at the junction were about to start moving again as the traffic lights were about to change.

Sensing that he urgently needed help, I drove my car right next to him thus shielding him from oncoming traffic whilst my wife immediately alighted upon my stopping and hurriedly proceeded to push the man in the wheel-chair to safety. Other road users were initially dismayed at my actions and sounded their horn impatiently because by then the position of my car had inadvertently blocked their path. But when they eventually saw my true intentions, they all relented understandingly (by causing others to be impatient, I myself learned a lesson in practising patience on the road). We later found that the wheel-chair bound gentleman who appeared to be in his seventies, was also on his way to the same coffee shop as we were. So we all sat and had our breakfast together.

Crash and Carry
Only by first lighting up our heart can we inspire others to do the same.

My wife comes from a large family and has many siblings living here in Singapore, Johor Bahru (Southern-most state of Malaysia) and Perlis (Northern-most state of Malaysia). It is typical for family to look out for each other and when my wife’s second brother and his family came over from Perlis, we dutifully accommodated them. After a weekend of entertaining, we drove them across the causeway to another brother’s home in Johor Bahru to stay the night before their long trip back home the next day. It was on our way home to Singapore that our real adventure began.

By the time we started making our way back to the immigration checkpoint, it was already way past noon. That’s when we realized that we hadn’t had our lunch yet. So we stopped to eat at a vegetarian outlet that we found along the way. After lunch we continued on our way home. At a traffic junction while waiting for the lights to change in our favour, we noticed how motorcyclists in Johor Bahru like to weave their way to the front of other vehicles in anticipation of the changing traffic lights. Mine was the first car in the front at that junction and we saw this happen; no sooner had all the motorcycles sped off together when one of them suddenly skidded and fell, sending motorcyclist and pillion rider sprawling to ground. Plastic bags, grocery items and motorcycle parts were strewn all over the road. We were following quite closely in our car and immediately slowed down to stop behind them creating a barrier between them and oncoming traffic.

Keeping my hazard lights flashing to warn oncoming traffic of the accident, my wife and I leapt out of the car to render aid to the accident victims. The young couple that had fallen off their motorcycle was husband-and-wife Malaysian nationals who had come to Johor Bahru for grocery shopping and were on their way back to Singapore where they were working. We later learnt that the couple’s motorcycle skidded and fell because the other motorcyclists around them were in fact a snatch-thief gang working in unison and had deliberately boxed them in to try and snatch the wife’s handbag. It was this ensuing tug-of-war action that caused the husband to lose control of his motorcycle and hence skidded and fell. At this point I understood why none of the other motorcyclists stopped to help and all sped off after the failed robbery attempt.

After helping them to collect their belongings from the road, I did my best to dress their wounds with my first aid kit that I always carry with me in the car, while my wife sought help from a sundry shop owner across the road. They were very kind and offered to keep the damaged motorcycle for the couple until they were well enough to reclaim it. As their motorcycle was unfit for the road I offered to drive them back to Singapore and directly to a hospital. At the Singapore Immigration we encountered heavy traffic but were greeted by helpful officers who helped us beat the traffic queue when they learned that we were helping and carrying accident victims in our vehicle.

It was December 2009 when we left the couple at the Accident & Emergency Department to be treated for their injuries. Not long after, we invited them to Tzu Chi sharing sessions and they consequently became our members, later on 20 March 2010, one half of the couple; the wife became a volunteer and attended her first volunteer training session. 

Crunch Time
Doing good deeds will naturally consume time; but it is the purpose and duty of life.

I was on my way to work one morning driving along my usual route, when I noticed something amiss. As I approached the slip road where I usually turn into to enter the highway, I noticed a fallen motorcycle on the road with its rider lying supine not far from it. The motorcyclist had for somehow skidded and tumbled off his machine. The situation looked precarious; nothing had been done to alert oncoming traffic of the occurrence. I positioned my vehicle just behind the victim so as to shield him from the morning rush hour traffic and left my hazard lights flashing to alert oncoming vehicles.

There was already a group of passers-by crowding around. Upon my queries, one of them informed me that the ambulance was on the way. I noticed that the victim, a gentleman who appeared to be in his mid-forties only had a minor scratch on his elbow and that he hadn’t been moved from his fallen position, neither had his helmet been removed. This was good because no one had witnessed how he fell and moving him could aggravate his condition should he have sustained any internal injuries.

I was glad that I had arrived at the scene when I did, because soon after, it started to rain and the victim started to shiver. I quickly whipped out an umbrella and a travel blanket from the trunk of my car. I pulled the blanket over the victim’s torso and placed the open umbrella on the ground next to his head so that it shielded his face from the rain. I was myself getting wet from the rain and already late for work, but I could not bear to leave the scene. Reaching into my car I put on a cap to ward off the rain from my face and assumed the role of a traffic warden, waving oncoming traffic to bypass the accident area. I continued like this until a mobile traffic policeman and the Singapore Civil Defence Force ambulance arrived.

As the paramedics tended to the victim, I gathered my belongings and prepared to leave, but not before the traffic policeman was able to utter a “thanks” to me, I reciprocated with a smile and a nod and I was off to my office. Drenched in rain mixed with perspiration, I arrived at work a little late, but I was glad that I did my bit to help because the motorcyclist who fell did not get a chance to reach his office at all that day.

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