The Accident

“Sir”, he said, bursting into the room where I was conducting a job interview, “May I use the power saw?” Not the question one expects during a job interview.

With a confused look I nodded yes. Our driver dashed to the office tool locker, grabbed the power saw, and disappeared. I apologized to the interviewee, and we resumed our discussion.

This being Uganda, the windows were wide open. We soon heard the power saw in action from somewhere down the road. The interviewee and I were both distracted, listening intently to the grind of the saw on something very unforgiving.

Moments later the project driver re-appeared, sweaty and breathless. “Sir”, he said. “May I borrow 10,000 Shillings?” (about $3.00). He looked at me pleadingly.

I turned to the interviewee to apologize once more, then I asked our driver what was going on.

There had been an accident. A bread truck had crashed through the gates of our project house and smashed into a concrete pillar. The driver of the truck was pinned behind the steering wheel with cracked ribs. Our power saw had been used to cut through the steering column of the truck to free him. But the 10,0000 Shillings?

They had called an ambulance from the accident scene. Alas, the ambulance reported that they could not come because they were “out of fuel”. This was a thinly veiled request for a bribe. Hence the 10,000 Shillings. The irony is that we actually worked on the same compound as the hospital. So our project driver just drove the injured person there himself.

It turns out the injured person was the 16-year-old nephew of the actual bread truck driver. The latter had been drinking and was fast asleep in the passenger seat. The nephew was driving with no license, no shoes, no experience, and apparently no functional brakes.

We got things sorted and I concluded the interview. In my distracted state I offered the candidate the job. Worst hire of my career.  By contrast, that project driver – with his pro-active, get-it-done, common sense – now manages a national fleet of hundreds of vehicles and drivers.

[If you know someone else who might enjoy a lighthearted story to begin their week, kindly forward them WordsfortheWeary. The more the merrier.]