Personal Voice

Although it is usually hard to find a silver lining in an auto accident, I was recently involved in one that had many.

I was on my way home in the southbound lane, coming to an overpass. For some reason, I moved to the left lane, though I can’t remember why. Perhaps I saw a car coming up the on-ramp. I had barely passed the top of the overpass when it looked like there was an explosion in the northbound lane, with car parts shooting off in many directions. In an instant, a car came flying across the median directly toward me. As it did, it rolled over in midair.

I swerved to the left, into the median, to avoid what would have been a semi head-on collision. Just as the other car was about to land on its top, we smashed into each other, my car’s left side hard against their car’s right.

The speed limit on the road was seventy miles per hour, and we were both probably traveling that. Without the impact, they would likely have sailed across the southbound lanes, hit the guardrail, and flipped end over end down the embankment. However, the impact changed their momentum, causing them to spin as they landed on their top. I don’t think they even reached the guardrail.

I didn’t see much of what happened with their car after the collision, but I was told by kind people who stopped. Meanwhile, I brought my car to a stop. The collision has smashed in the side of my car, sending an explosion of glass shards at me. I was a bit shaken, but worried about the people in the other vehicle.

By the time I got out, others had stopped to help. There were two teenagers in the other car that was now upside down on the road. People had them out and sitting against the guardrail. I sat down on the guardrail, thankful we were all alive.

Traffic started moving slowly past, then police came and routed cars off the exit before the overpass, then back on beyond it. An ambulance arrived, and the medics asked how we were doing. I told them I was dazed, but felt I was fine, and insisted they check on the two teens. The boy, who I think was driving, had a bleeding head wound, and later, on examination, had a concussion. His sister was frightened, but only had minor scratches on her leg.

The teenagers’ father couldn’t get through and ran up to where we were. The boy was loaded into the ambulance, and the police got the father’s car through. The girl climbed in with her father, and they followed the ambulance to the hospital.

Meanwhile, a witness from the northbound lane told the police officer that the car that first hit the teenager’s car had been weaving erratically, so his wife had filmed them. After they hit the teenagers and sent them flying across the median, that car took off. But the video showed the car, including the license plate.

The medical team leaving with the ambulance said the arriving firemen would check to see if I needed any care. As the firemen approached, I thought about the miracles that had happened. If I had been less than half a second ahead of where I was on the road, the other car probably would have landed on top of me. If I had been in the right lane, they probably would have smashed directly into the driver’s side of my car.

The police said that if I had been even half a second behind where I was, the other car would have missed me. That would have been good for me, but if my car hadn’t turned the momentum of their car, the two young people would probably have been dead. If I hadn’t been able to steer enough so that we didn’t hit each other directly, we all would likely be dead.

By the magnitude of the wreck, I’m sure that others thought someone was killed. Later that night, when I tried to find more information about it and the person who did the hit and run, Google said that the highest number of searches that evening with the exit name had asked who had died there that day. The many miracles made the answer to that, “No one.”

If a person wants to call everything that happened a coincidence, that’s fine. However, I often recall a quote attributed to Einstein, although some dispute its authenticity. I believe it, regardless of who said it.

“A coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

(To be continued)