On Tuesday September 13, 2011 at ten minutes to 6, I was on my way to the gym to work out traveling on the 215 Las Vegas Beltway and the rain was coming down in typical dessert rainstorm fashion. I was in the middle lane doing 60 mph, when I looked to the right and there was driver in a car talking on cell his phone held up to his left ear that was not paying enough attention to the road and without looking, turned into my lane. Had I not been looking right at him thinking to myself what an idiot, when he turned into my lane I would not have seen him and for sure he would have hit my car and caused a serious accident. However, I was paying attention at that moment and I honked my horn as I swerved to my left to avoid him hitting me.
Because the rain was so intense and the highway was wet, as I swerved to the left, my car started to skid and my two left wheels felt as if they were lifting off the ground. Fortunately, I am a good driver and having been brought up in New York, had enough practice to handle my car in bad weather, this incident ended with nothing more than anger from me towards the unknown driver in the other car that could have ended in a much more profound outcome, such as death, dismemberment or combination of the two, plus an insurance filing.
The incident made me relate to something I had just read about a test pilot that when interviewed expressed his view that fate is a hunter. So true.
My thoughts afterward, made me realize how fortunate I am and that I am living my life in such a manner as that when the final curtain call does come for me, I am not going to have too many regrets. It was an interesting experience in that I was not in fear of losing my life nor did I experience an adrenaline rush nor did a movie of my life flash before my eyes. There was a calm that came over me as if that if this was my time, then I was ready to accept it. Perhaps that it all happened so fast or even though it look and felt precarious, my senses told me that I was in control of the car and I was going to maneuver out of danger.
It has been a couple of days now since my brush with near death and I look back at the experience with distant emotions and feel the urge to live my life to the fullest one more time.