A Split Second

Every once in a while you get reminded of how delicate life can be!

The other day I was driving with the family. We were heading back after taking a little vacation a few hundred miles away. We like to drive to these places most of the time because it isn't really worth flying, as expensive as flying may be. I like to drive to a lot of these places because it's actually a lot of fun to take a little road trip! You get to see all kinds of beautiful sights and get to explore lots of places that you likely have never been to before. Funny enough as well, you get to support some local businesses along the way!

When we were heading back from the vacation, we were on the highway. We saw a nice car driving by us, and I distinctively remember the car because I said "damn that's a nice car! I'm surprised they aren't driving like an asshole.. they are pretty chill, good for them!" something along those lines. The car was one that I liked a few years ago, and wanted to buy but it made absolutely no sense to buy it so we passed on it.

Not even a minute after the car passed by us, it was a few cars in front when all of a sudden we saw a crazy commotion. It turns out the really nice car somehow lost control, veered hard to the left and smashed into the median, then spun around, thankfully remaining upright, and stopped in the middle of the highway. The car was completely smashed, and most likely utterly totaled. Everyone on the highway thankfully stopped, nobody hit them and a bunch of people pulled over to help get them out of the car.

It was a woman driving, not making any stereotypes here, and she was all cut up and bleeding, likely from the thrashing she got and broken glass all over the place. Sadly, in the day we live in, my very first thought was "she was probably texting while driving and lost control" which is unfortunate. However, it is likely the story has some truth to it.. I won't ever find out though, as we didn't get involved. I'm not sure if I was alone if I would've pulled over to help but you never know unless you are in the situation.

This got me to thinking how fast and delicate life is! It was really wild and for sure one of the worst accidents I've seen in front of me before. I've seen a couple, and thankfully none of them have been horror shows. Nobody has died that I'm aware of, and the woman was walking around talking on her phone likely calling 911 or her loved ones or something, I'm not sure.

The little man saw the accident as well, because when it happened I immediately said to my wife and him that they need to watch out because of the accident that just happened in front of us. He saw the last part of it, but I think it was enough to scare a little sense into him.

Seeing car accidents is a pretty frightening thing, because even if we are careful and paying attention there is no guarantee that it won't happen to us. One of the things I think happened, can't prove it of course, is that the tractor trailer that was driving in front somehow got a bad gust of wind. It was very windy that day, especially on the highway, and that truck was all over the road, I remember slowing down so that he could keep going and I could get away from him.

Did he swerve unintentionally into her lane, and she was texting and accidentally went into his lane? The passenger side window was popped, so there was something that happened, but we don't know how.

At the end of the day though, nobody got killed that I'm aware of and that's a huge relief, because that would be pretty traumatic for anyone to see, especially a kid who's my sons age.

What about you, have you see an accident in front of you? What happened? Let me know in the comments!