Arabic version: مساعدة سائق سيارة أجرة في ليلة متجمدة في كانبيرا
According to The Guardian, a woman recalled being stranded in Canberra in 1982 after a tyre blew while she was driving home from a fancy-dress party.
In her early 20s at the time, she said she had to fight to keep control of her Toyota Corolla before bringing it to a stop without crashing. It was a foggy, bitterly cold winter night, and she was dressed in a flapper outfit and high heels, with no certainty that she had brought a jacket.
Although she had a spare tyre in the car, she did not know how to change it. She considered walking home alone, a journey she estimated would take an hour, or waiting for another vehicle to pass. For 30 minutes, she remained in the driver’s seat, unsure what to do.
She said Canberra’s roads were usually empty at that hour, with little public transport and few taxis. When she saw an available taxi approaching, she flagged it down and asked for a ride home, planning to call a tow truck and return for the car in the morning.
The older taxi driver instead offered to replace the tyre. She recalled that he changed it on the freezing night, waited until she drove away safely and declined payment, telling her: “Don’t be ridiculous, love!” She said she would like to give him a hug if she ever saw him again.
