The Times I’ve Seen Accidents in The Gambia

I’ve only seen three mentionable accidents so far. The first I didn’t actually observe happening, but came upon the scene right after. The accident was a seemingly harmless fender bender, so it looked to us as we drove by, but that didn’t stop a crowd of people from forming around the cars as the two drivers discussed the accident. There was a mob of people yelling and pointing every which way each with their own version of events and eyewitness account. I feel like this was a very African occurrence, it was an event that definitely would not have happened at home. It made me feel very foreign, which is exactly what I am looking for on this journey.

The next time I saw an accident I was walking on a very busy road in Westfield near Serrekunda when I saw a man riding a ten-speed bicycle the wrong way down a divided main thoroughfare. He dodged around a parked truck a move that put him in the middle of the street and when he came back around the rear of the truck he slammed right into a young woman who was walking across the street. He smacked into her so hard that, simultaneously, she dropped to the ground, her hair extensions shot off her head, and her flip-flop popped off. He didn’t even fall off his bike. She stood up and the man apologized for hitting her and went over and picked up her hair extensions and then came back and handed them to her. He apologized again and rode off. She hadn’t even moved from where she had been hit before he was already gone. She limped to the side of the street and as she began walking to the curb she noticed her flip flop was busted so she had to now walk with one shoe off to the side where she composed herself, put her hair in her purse for safe keeping and was gone. That accident would also not have resolved itself like that in America like it did here in Gambia, insurance would be claimed, perhaps a lawyer would be consulted, hopefully for free of course. However, in a country where no one has any money then there is nothing really to do but smile, or grimace, and go on your way.

The third accident happened right in front of Carolyn and myself and involved a turning tour bus and the taxi we were about to get into. I opened the back door and was holding it for Carolyn when the door was no longer in my hand and the car was no longer in front of us. It had moved, through no decision of its own, ten feet ahead of me and into another cab parked on the side of the road. This second collision almost delegged a young man. However, with amazing agility he leapt out of the way right before he was turned into the meat in a cab sandwich. All this happened because a tour bus turning a corner too sharply, only going about a mile an hour, hit the rear of the taxi. There were startled Danes looking feverishly out of the window of the bus and saw the tour guide jump out and barely spent a minute with the driver before she hopped back on and the bus which continued on its way. As soon as this happened everyone even remotely near this scene began mobbing around the car. Leading Carolyn away from the accident I said, “Let’s walk this way right now,” but she insisted on giving the driver her mobile number and then later made a statement to a “policeman” who called. They wanted her to meet them somewhere but she told them she wasn’t in the area. Like we’re going to walk straight into some kind of shakedown – I don’t think so.

From what I have been told when a minor accident occurs, and the people involved have decided who is to blame, they will go together to a mechanic and the person at fault will pay the bill for the other car’s damages. I guess that is just easier than trying to get money from the state run insurance. Which may not exactly function like insurance back home. Or may not function at all.


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