Most Scary Event in My Life

¶ … Frightening Event in My Life THE MOST FRIGHTENING EVENT IN MY LIFE Three years ago, I was driving home from the first social affair with co- workers from my new job. It was late, but I always enjoyed driving late at night when the roads are almost empty. As the trees zipped past my windows, I was still contemplating the evening's events and trying not to obsess about the cordial way my boss had greeted me when I might have expected him to be a little friendlier, under the circumstances.

Now, I understand his personality much better, but at the time I was worried that he didn't like me too much. During the day, two-way roads such as the one I was on at the time always made me very nervous, because the two opposite directions of traffic are separated by nothing more than yellow lines painted on the asphalt. I remember thinking about that very thing when headlights first appeared about a quarter of a mile away coming toward me.

As he approached, I was absolutely horrified to see that he was actually in my lane, headed in the wrong direction. It was one of my worst fears actually coming true. It happened so fast that I had no time to do anything at all except take my foot off the accelerator and scream the single word, "No!" before the impact. Luckily, I remember nothing of the actual collision itself, but they tell me that is often the case with people who have concussions.

My next memory was being told by paramedics not to move my head while they got me out of the car. As angry as I was about the other driver's irresponsibility, I have to admit that I was also somewhat shocked by how roughly he was treated by one of the police officers who responded to the scene. Despite the fact that the other driver had very conspicuous injuries, he was handcuffed immediately after being removed from the remains of his car.

It just seemed to me that it would have been more appropriate to treat him as a patient at the time, rather than as a criminal. He had a deep gash in his forehead and I heard one of the paramedics said something about the obsolete seatbelts in thirty-five-year-old classic" cars, which he said have only a lap belt and no shoulder strap.

When they explained to me that he had just been arrested for driving under the influence a few weeks earlier, I understood why they treated him somewhat different from me at the time. I am very thankful to all of the professional heroes who rescued me from the accident. Likewise, I have a much greater respect for the work that these people do, because they are so good at it.

They could not have done a more thorough job, from the time they first arrived at the scene and began taking apart my car to the seamless way professionals from at least three different agencies coordinated their efforts and individual responsibilities so seamlessly and efficiently. The only thing that was almost as frightening to me as the actual accident was having to go to court to testify in the criminal trial of the other driver.

I had never been in a courtroom before and I am not comfortable speaking in front of strangers. In some ways, I also felt bad, if not guilty, for helping send a man to jail, but I also realized that he almost killed me and that if he escaped punishment, I might help him kill someone else just as innocent as me. One of the prosecutors had told me not to be fooled if the defendant acted very remorseful, because that would be part of his lawyer's strategy.

I expected to have a difficult time looking him in the eye, so I was somewhat surprised that he refused to make any eye contact with me at all. In fact, the defendant sat there looking as cold as an icicle, which made me feel much better about fulfilling my responsibility as a witness in his prosecution.

If he had seemed extremely remorseful and ashamed of almost taking the life of an innocent person, I might have been too sympathetic to help send him to prison even though I knew it was the right thing to do. Luckily, I never had to wonder whether he was being sincere or just acting, because he looked more annoyed than sorry for what he did. When it was my turn to testify, the prosecutor introduced me and told me to go to the witness stand.

I don't know why, but my pulse rate got very fast and I felt myself getting very warm. When I began describing what happened on the night of the accident, it brought back much of the incredible fear that I felt when I first realized that there was a car coming directly at.