Maniac Drivers!

I had one of those experiences where I saw my life and many in our van flash before me. We were driving home from doing tutoring this last Wednesday evening. I typically don’t rush through intersections after the lights change. As I’m starting to accelerate I hear this ominous sound and see this huge old truck that was bigger than life go speeding through the red light at a near speed of sound record. My heart jumped a few beats and the teens had this scary sense that the van could have been destroyed.

It took a few minutes for my heart to go back inside my chest. I wondered what was happening with this crazy man who apparently had decided to go on a ‘killing’ spree. I wasn’t surprised a few minutes later to hear lots of sirens and see both police and fire trucks speeding to an intersection a few miles away. As we approached the intersection, which was totally blocked off, it became apparent that this truck had unfortunately hit someone. We attempted to drive close to see the damage but the entire street was blocked. I prayed that those that had been hit would be ok.

I have memories from my youth when I was in another close call accident. I was in a rock band in high school and we were driving to a ‘gig’ that was in a neighboring city. It was a prom for a high school. We were in a few vehicles with our equipment spread between them. It was a very rainy night with poor visibility. We approached a turn onto a major freeway and my dad who was driving didn’t see a car that was speeding and all of a sudden we are in slow motion as the car t-boned us and we do a donut and hit the car at the other side of the intersection. I can remember the screeching sound and the smell of gas. We stopped and quickly took notice of whether anyone was seriously injured. I was shocked as we all got out of the different vehicles to discover no one had been seriously hurt. All of the cars were totaled. This was before cell phones, GPS and the Internet so we had to walk to a ranch house about a ¼ of a mile away. We quickly called for the highway patrol.

The officer was very helpful as he assisted with getting all of the information between the drivers. It took a few hours before everything was put on tow trucks. That evening the reality was that Sacramento High School’s Prom was cancelled. It was obviously that most of our band equipment had been ruined in the wreck. I walked away from this experience knowing that I could have been killed. I got a wake up call about life that night that has lasted over the last 45 years. Yes, driving crazy will get you killed and unfortunately someone else too.

Yes, I have slowed down when it comes to crossing intersections without both seeing and hearing what is happening. The bigger question is to always purse life in a positive way and purposely choose to do something that matters and makes a difference!