the smedley log - suburban scrawl

Seconds

“It takes a second to say goodbye,
say goodbye, oh, oh, oh…”
-U2

I was on my way to work yesterday, and I made a stop on the way. My pit stop was on a four-lane business highway, and the entrance I was using required me to make a left hand turn from the neutral lane between the two sets of lanes going in opposite directions.

As I approached the entrance, my turn signal engaged, I saw that there was adequate distance between me and oncoming traffic and a pickup truck waiting to exit the shopping center. I started to make my turn. As I did, the truck waiting to exit started to move forward.

My life flashed before my eyes, as I realized that it the exiting vehicle didn’t stop, it would either hit me, or at least prevent me from entering the parking lot (thereby leaving me prone to the rapidly approaching traffic, whose lanes I was currently occupying). Actually, in either scenario, it seemed safe to assume I would be prone to the oncoming traffic.

Fortunately for me, the exiting vehicle finally noticed my car and stopped before exiting fully. I was able to enter the lot safely, though the oncoming car, which had been a good two hundred yards away, was now within about a hundred feet.

Then, unfortunately, the driver of the pickup truck (for reasons I’ll never quite grasp) decided to proceed forward onto the highway, and directly in front of a car that was approaching at a speed of 35-40 miles an hour. The collision I witnessed in my rearview mirror a second later was surreal, and given that it happened about ten feet behind me, it was also a bit of a shock.

Following the collision, the oncoming car, a comact sedan, had nothing left in front of the passenger compartment. The pickup truck, which had been thrown somehow to the median lane I was in prior to turning, had a huge indentation centering on the drivers door, the body was twisted but it was upright.

Apparently both drivers were alive, and I stuck around long enough to provide my information to the police, but I couldn’t help going over in my head how easily I could have found myself in that collision, either by being cut off while trying to enter the parking lot, or by remaining in the median lane and having a pickup truck launched into me. Of course, who knows what would have happened if just on factor in the equation had been changed?

That would have freaked me out too. Glad noone was hurt but that sounds like the type of thing that makes one feel the effects of for some time.

You were lucky, Howard. I think about that sort of thing all the time, not just where accidents are concerned, but everything. If one teeny factor changed, how completely different would a situation be. (Of course, I usually do this while examining my own life), but it’s disconcerting to think about.

And good song/lyric for the title. I always like it when people do that.

I too spend a lot of time considering the many things that almost happen (or almost don’t happen). I am often made aware of the odd little events that conspire to make my life what it is. A good argument for not going back in time to change things that have already happened, perhaps?

Absolutely. Have few regrets, learn from your mistakes, and move on. None of this backwards time travel nonesense. Unless it’s like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Excellent!