½ Second

Curtis writes:

It is amazing what can happen (or not happen) in ½ second. I had a very close call while driving to work last week on I-65. Everything happened so fast that it is hard to take it all in.

I was in the middle lane when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye to my right. It was a gray Dodge Durango coming in my direction in the air. Apparently this driver was going too fast or hit a slick spot on the ramp onto I-65, went down the embankment, hit the road and became airborne. The SUV landed in the lane beside me blowing out its front-left tire and careened across every lane of traffic and about 2 feet in front of me. Pieces of tires, sparks and other shrapnel flew in my direction. The SUV came to rest after hitting concrete median.

At first I was simply amazed at what had just happened. I’m not sure if I even hit the brakes. It was almost a scene out of “Days of Thunder” where the racecar drivers speed up and power through the wreck in front of them. It felt like I just ran a marathon as my legs were cramped from tensing up and I was breathing hard from the excitement of it all.

It took me a few days to realize how lucky I actually was. I brushed it off as an interesting story to a normally mundane drive to work. However, after thinking about it for a while, if I was 6 feet farther than what I was I could have been into the median wall with the Durango. Or, I could have gotten clipped, spun around or even flipped my car.

I am very thankful for every day of my life right down to the ½ seconds.