ONE SECOND

One second. It only takes one second to change your life. One second to end your life.

Today, I woke up like any other Monday morning. I woke up and got ready for work. Never ever would I have imagined what would happen on this Monday morning. I didn’t know that this would be a day I’d remember for the rest of my life.

I was driving to work on the freeway during rush hour, just like any other day. At the spot where it happened, there were three lanes. I was driving on the left lane, a red car was driving on the middle lane, and a truck was driving on the right. The truck driver started to indicate that he wanted to switch to the middle lane because his lane would lead off the freeway. He didn’t move yet, but I guess the driver on the middle lane panicked and started to move onto my lane without checking if it was free. When I saw him crossing the line, knowing it would result in a crash with me, I started to break hard. The street was very wet because it was raining earlier and so I started skidding. I tried to countersteer the wheel, but with a speed of 100 km/h, I had no chance. My car crossed a bump on the left side of the road, which led into overturning. It was thrown against a wall, and from there, it kept overturning to the right side until it collided with a truck on the right lane. Then it slid back to the left lane again. Later, witnesses would tell police officers that my car crashed from one side of the street to the other, like a football rolling between boards.

There’s three endings to a story like this:

1. I got really lucky. I didn’t have a single injury except marks from the seat belt. I called the ambulance and climbed out of the car with the help from passer-bys. The seat belt saved my life. My grandma saved my life.
2. I was severely injured and have to endure pain for the rest of my life.
3. I died.

As I’m writing down my story, obviously, the first scenario is the actual ending to my story. I believe that my lovely grandmother was watching over me.

There’s four things I want to point out:

• One: Always look over your SHOULDER before you change lanes to check the dead angles!
• Two: ALWAYS fasten your seatbelt. Seatbelts save lives!
• Three: Please stop and help others when you witness an accident. Please don’t drive away if you cause an accident.
• Four: When you get stuck in a traffic jam, think about why there could be a traffic jam and what could have happened. Don’t get angry because you have to wait and don’t get to work on time. I think it’s safe to say that you better arrive late than never and nobody wants to be in an accident and cause a traffic jam. When you’re in an accident, everything else in the world becomes so small. Work doesn’t matter. The only thing that counts is your health. So think about that before you get angry.

And remember that it only takes one second to end your life!

***this post was written in September 2020***