Clarke Greenbank’s Experience of an Accident
Ben Symonds Clarke gets hit by a car High school student Clarke Greenbank, who was previously struck by a car, has overcome the humiliation and abuse and is now back on top of the social scene. On September 11th 2008, Clarke Greenbank was biking from his house to Harry Miller Middle School, located in Rothesay New Brunswick. He was almost there, he rode up to the cross walk and made sure the cars stopped for him to cross, they did, and unfortunately one of the drivers did not notice Clarke.
Clarke was hit by an oncoming car; he was tossed off his bike and landed on his back on the hood of the car, he then rolled off the car into the middle off the street. Fortunately Clarke was not injured severely, Clarke says “My back was a bit sore for a few weeks and I wasn’t able to play sports or anything”. Clarke’s humiliation started once the news of his accident spread through the school, fellow classmate Colin Rachford says that the reactions of Clarkes peers were along the lines of “hahahahahaha”, “Oh my god” and “Of course it was Clarke”.
It was the school joke, people would often bring it up to Clarke, and he would get stared and giggled at while walking the lonely halls of Harry Miller Middle School. The teasing went on for a long while; Clarke says “I was literally known as the guy who got hit by a car for all of grade 8”. At first Clarke would become annoyed or angry when people would bring it up, by either ignoring them or tell them to “shut up”. These teasing’s continued to happen and Clarke was becoming tired of getting mad over it so he decided to make jokes about the incident. He was amused with the attention he was getting.
Classmate Bailey Collins says “ One day in class we had a supply teacher who made us tell our name and 1 piece of information about ourselves, once it got to Clarkes turn he said: My name is Clarke Greenbank and I got hit by a car”. Clarke thought it would be pointless to let it get to him forever, from there on out Clarke was neither ashamed nor embarrassed about his incident but accepted as a good story to tell when he is older and has kids of his own and he says “Hopefully when I tell my kids the story of me getting hit by a car they will be more careful when crossing streets.
Now instead of being known as the guy who got hit by a car, Clarke is known for his exceptional speed skating skills, great sense of humour, ok taste in music and his winning smile. From getting hit by a car Clarke has learned to expect the unexpected in life and to look both ways before crossing the street. Clarke is grateful that he was not seriously injured and from the man himself “if it was brewed there, it’s from there’.
