Last night I may have saved someones life, and/or my own. I was driving a 55 mph stretch of 2 lane highway When something didn't quite look right as I crested the hill. Coming around the curve towards me I suddenly realized a car was coming at me head on. Not just slightly over the line, this car was completely in the wrong lane like they thought the yellow centerline was the fog line.
It was surreal like a movie that has the danger zoom in when it's seen. Everything seemed so magnified but also in slow motion. There were no other cars coming towards me and I had one car following me. I saw the centerline with both the dashed line for the center and the solid line for no passing on what should have been this other cars lane. I saw the headlights and tires completely in the center of my lane and they suddenly became about 4 times normal size in my mind. I remember hitting the brakes to slow briefly as I cranked the wheel towards the shoulder and hit the horn just as I see this huge headlight and fender zip past my side window. I looked in the mirror and was relieved to see the headlights still following me and the other car seemed to be back in it's own correct lane.
I'm glad the shoulder was wide and clear enough at that point since everything happened so quick I never slowed below 45 before I was back on my lane again. I wasn't really panicked about my own near miss, I had more of a feeling that I had been there to save the other two cars. I felt like I avoided the accident because of my years of professional driving experience and if I hadn't been there the others would have collided because of where they would have been in relation to the hill and curve.
Sometimes things do happen for a reason and my short delay in heading out on the road probably saved some lives last night.
It was surreal like a movie that has the danger zoom in when it's seen. Everything seemed so magnified but also in slow motion. There were no other cars coming towards me and I had one car following me. I saw the centerline with both the dashed line for the center and the solid line for no passing on what should have been this other cars lane. I saw the headlights and tires completely in the center of my lane and they suddenly became about 4 times normal size in my mind. I remember hitting the brakes to slow briefly as I cranked the wheel towards the shoulder and hit the horn just as I see this huge headlight and fender zip past my side window. I looked in the mirror and was relieved to see the headlights still following me and the other car seemed to be back in it's own correct lane.
I'm glad the shoulder was wide and clear enough at that point since everything happened so quick I never slowed below 45 before I was back on my lane again. I wasn't really panicked about my own near miss, I had more of a feeling that I had been there to save the other two cars. I felt like I avoided the accident because of my years of professional driving experience and if I hadn't been there the others would have collided because of where they would have been in relation to the hill and curve.
Sometimes things do happen for a reason and my short delay in heading out on the road probably saved some lives last night.