Yesterday evening, I was coming back from a short July 4th holiday... 200 mile drive. At about 10:30 p.m., some animal ran out into the roadway and I hit it. I never saw the animal, but I'll tell you what I saw.... basically what you would expect to see from an object immediately in front of the headlamp -- like maybe 3 inches in front, the glare that blasts back at you. It was golden color. The glimpse was less than 1/10th of a second, then came the gut wrenching bomb like sound that comes from hitting an object at 75mph. NO I wasn't speeding, that was the speed limit. The glimpse was so short that aside from that small flash, I can't picture the actual object. There was absolutely no time to react so I hit it full speed. That was probably the saving grace because had I seen it a second or two before, I would probably have swerved instinctively and at 75mph, a lot of bad things can happen from a sudden swerve at that speed. Anyway, I never saw it and didn't know exactly what it was. It wasn't until later when a passing motorist that exited the freeway asked if I needed help that I asked if he saw an animal back there. He said it was a deer. That's what I thought due to it's height.
There is damage but I'm happy to report that aside from the animal which paid the ultimate price, I survived intact with nothing but my nerves shaken. The car has front end damage and couldn't be driven without extricating all the hanging and dangling dragging parts but once removed, I was actually able to drive the remaining 60 miles home, albeit with some disturbing occassional noise from front right area.
I'm sharing this to remind everyone here that we take life for granted but so much can change at any particular moment in time that you never know. While standing along the off ramp in the pitch black, I realized that so many, perhaps hundreds of more drastic and horrible versions of the event could have happened. If I had hit the animal 0.2 seconds later, it would probably have been dead center instead of what was probably a glancing hit and I might not be here to share this. If I had 1 or 2 seconds advanced warning, I might have swerved and rolled... at 75mph. The accident could have happened somewhere else along the journey that was much further from home. The car could have easily sustained far greater damage. Oh, of all the other potentially dreadful versions.... I'm just glad and thank God that the version that occurred and most favorable for me is the one that occurred. I bought myself another day. I'm planning to make the most of it.
There is damage but I'm happy to report that aside from the animal which paid the ultimate price, I survived intact with nothing but my nerves shaken. The car has front end damage and couldn't be driven without extricating all the hanging and dangling dragging parts but once removed, I was actually able to drive the remaining 60 miles home, albeit with some disturbing occassional noise from front right area.
I'm sharing this to remind everyone here that we take life for granted but so much can change at any particular moment in time that you never know. While standing along the off ramp in the pitch black, I realized that so many, perhaps hundreds of more drastic and horrible versions of the event could have happened. If I had hit the animal 0.2 seconds later, it would probably have been dead center instead of what was probably a glancing hit and I might not be here to share this. If I had 1 or 2 seconds advanced warning, I might have swerved and rolled... at 75mph. The accident could have happened somewhere else along the journey that was much further from home. The car could have easily sustained far greater damage. Oh, of all the other potentially dreadful versions.... I'm just glad and thank God that the version that occurred and most favorable for me is the one that occurred. I bought myself another day. I'm planning to make the most of it.
Here's hoping that you don't have the bad dreams that would most likely follow that kind of experience.
