The other night, I was driving my family home from my wife’s family Christmas event. We’d had a fun evening, Rebecca and I were talking about some things, it was a pleasant time. As we drove up a windy road, very suddenly there was a vehicle coming too fast in the other direction. He was in my lane, and he was not in complete control of his vehicle. I was in complete control of mine, and I swerved off the road.
Now, thankfully, we were travelling a road which, in spots, has a tremendously well graded gravel shoulder. I was able to maintain control of the vehicle and return to normal travel on the road.
But in that three or four seconds, so many things could’ve gone wrong. I wasn’t sure about the state of the shoulder — if I’d stayed in my lane, it would’ve been a really bad accident. The act of hitting the shoulder could’ve caused a loss of control worse than that accident, if it had gone just right. There were any number of circumstances in which things ended poorly.
Thankfully, they didn’t. I continued on up the windy road until it became unwindy, and I pulled over and caught my breath. Or thought about throwing up, or shook, or maybe all three. I’m thankful that it didn’t go worse, but also… good heavens, experiencing that kind of fear is not fun.