Ce'Cile - File

Badgyal Ce'Cile, who celebrated her birthday last Wednesday, almost never got to see another one following an incident in St Ann last Friday night in which her BMW motor car was forced off the road by an errant trailer driver.

The singer's luxury car was damaged when it broke through a stone wall as she tried to avoid being crushed by the trailer. The front end was damaged leaving the car 'wobbling'. The left fog light was broken, the tyres were damaged and there was also damage to the fender. However, the airbags did not deploy and the grateful singer isn't worried much about the damage.

"I thought I was gonna die," she said, while relating the incident to THE STAR yesterday. "I could not believe I was still in one piece."

DRIVING SAFELY

Ce'Cile explains that on Friday, she was in a hurry to get to Montego Bay, but got an early warning that she needed to slow down. "I got a speeding ticket at Faith's Pen and from there I decided to drive moderately," she said.

Keen on driving safely, she took a detour through Chalky Hill and when she got to an area known as Hermitage about 8:38 p.m, she said she saw a car coming in the opposite direction. She also noticed, 'a long flat-bed trailer' overtaking the car and bearing down on her. The trailer's lights were not on.

stay calm

Startled, but remaining calm under the circumstance, she quickly decided that if she could get enough of the car out of the way she would perhaps sustain only minor injuries. She swerved the car towards the embankment. "The car broke through the wall and got completely out of the way of the truck," she said, still in a state of disbelief.

The driver braked causing the truck to jack-knife and a car travelling behind the trailer suffered windshield damage. Ce'Cile said the truck driver, perhaps believing she was badly hurt or worse, sped off. Another motorist, who witnessed what happened, chased the trailer and managed to write down the licence plate numbers and took them back to Ce'Cile. She said the motorist told her the trailer driver "was driving like a maniac trying to get away".

While the trailer was being chased, the badly shaken singer was still sitting inside the vehicle. It was only after being prompted by onlookers that she alighted from the damaged car. She said it took seven men to get the car back onto the road from off the embankment. "I want to thank all the people who helped and for chasing the trailer and getting the licence plate numbers," she said.

She was in such shock, she said, that it was only after she eventually got to Montego Bay later that night and while talking to someone about the incident that it finally sunk in and she broke into tears. It didn't help that she reported the matter to the Coral Gardens police who told her that they were unable to help because the truck did not hit her.

She said the residents of Hermitage told her that what happened to her was not uncommon as "a so the trailer man dem drive all the time." She told THE STAR that she felt badly about the incident knowing that had someone been standing near the wall she could have injured them or worse. "Had I been distracted, like I am sometimes, I would have been dead," she said.