Life is funny, you never know what it’s going to throw your way. The other day I was driving home from work when I stopped for a red traffic light - nothing special about that, I stop at many lights on my way to work, on my way from work, or just when I‘m out running around the city. I was just sitting there waiting for the light to turn green, as I’ve done so many times in the past, so I could continue on my journey home when in a split second life decides to throw me something unexpected. As I waited, the light for the opposing traffic turned yellow then red. As soon as our light turned green I heard the sound of squealing breaks and saw the smoke of burning tires as the driver of the pick-up slammed on the breaks. He was coming so fast that the brakes must have locked and he lost control of the truck for a few seconds.

It was strange because it almost felt as if I were detached from the whole thing, much like watching a movie of the events. Everything just didn’t seem real at all. Someone I know once told me that when you’re about to die things get very vivid and events seem to go into slow motion. I don't know how he knows this since he's not dead, but that’s exactly what happened. I could see the truck spinning slowly as smoke billowed out the back of it and I could clearly see the look of fear in the driver’s green eyes as he lost control of the truck. The truck was slowly heading directly toward me and the two other drivers that were waiting for the light on either side of me. My fingers tightened on the steering wheel, my body went stiff, and I’m sure I closed my eyes closed for a second as I prepared for the impact. I opened my eyes just in time to see the truck spin away from us, missing me and the car on my right by a few inches.

The truck continued to spin through the intersection heading straight toward the stop light pole where a man was standing waiting for the “Walk” signal so he could cross the street. The man saw the truck coming toward him and his face went white with fear. I’ve never actually seen someone go white with fear before, but after that incident I can say that it really does happen. The man did a combination of a skip and jump as he got out of the way just before the truck hit the pole. The truck came so close to hitting the man that at first I thought the truck had hit his leg. The man yelled and time seemed to resume back to normal.

The man in the truck tried to take off, but he was stopped by people who had come out to make sure the man waiting for the “Walk” signal was ok. I pulled into a convenience store in the corner to check on the man and make sure that he was ok too. We were all a little shaken up, but we were ok.

I called my mom because it just seems like the thing you should do after you almost get hit by a speeding truck. I told her the story and she asked me if I was ok. I told her I was fine, but that it would have sucked to die on my way home from work. I told her that if I had the choice I would rather die on my way to work that way I wouldn’t have to spend the whole day at work and then die afterwards.

My mom just hung up on me. I think she may have muttered something about me being crazy.