You drive up and stop at a red light, a few cars ahead of you.
The light turns green, you release the break and you roll forward a little, waiting for the car ahead of you to go.
— WHAM —
You are jolted forward – smashing into the car ahead of you.
You are dazed, angry, and a little confused.
Someone hit you … and that someone drives off.
You pick up your cell phone and like a good citizen you call the police to report the accident.
As you approach the car ahead of you, you discover a pregnant woman, who’s pants are all wet.
She seems more in sock then you are.
She is complaining about not being able to see … at least the airbags did not deploy.
Her water has broke and due to the shock she goes into pre-term labor … and one of the two babies (she was carrying twins) is lost.
All, because you did not maintain a good distance between yourself and the car in front of you, plus some other person making a mistake.
Luckily, this is not what happened in my family today … well, not exactly.
There was a car accident, with three cars involved.
1. our car my pregnant with twins wife was driving
2. the car that hit our car
3. the car that hit the other car & ran away
Thankfully, my wife had released the break on our car & the car in front of her had moved ahead enough that she did not smash into it. I am pretty sure if she had been at a complete stop (with breaks on) the impact would have been greater on her body, where instead the car moved forward.
We did end up spending several hours at a hospital – to be sure during the most scary times and be monitored.
Lessons Learned – or at least re-emphasised:
– keep a good distance between you and any car in front of you at a stop light.
– when a light turns green – keep good distance between you and the car in front of you
– even when you do most everything right – we still do not control everything in our world; there are other forces.
– if you value flexibility in your life – when random stuff happens, you can adapt and move on.
Many times in our day, we are micro decisions away from major or bigger accidents.
What would have happened if the car in front of Helen had not moved?
Airbags?
Another car being hit?
Instead of our car being in neutral or moving slightly forward … at a standstill?
We are thankful for how little damage happened today & most days in our lives.
