How to Remain Calm During Highway Accidents

Less than a week ago, on Tuesday, October 7, 2008, I was involved in a fairly serious car accident on I-64 in Chesapeake, VA. It was around 6:00 PM, and I was driving home from work to spend the evening with my wife, Hannah, and my 1-year-old son, Ethan. There was absolutely no reason for me to think that I would not be sitting and eating dinner with my family within the hour. In a moment, everything changed.

The accident was most definitely not my fault. When it was all over, the other driver was charged with the offense of "failure to observe lane markings," which in my opinion is a rather unsatisfactory description of the driving errors she made that evening. Even if she had not crossed double solid lines to invade my lane, she would still have been at fault. It's just a fact that two cars cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Have you ever tried to pull into a parking space that already had a car in it? Of course not! Would you ever try to change lanes by driving into lane space that was already occupied by another vehicle? It sounds like a dumb thing to do (and it is), but that is exactly what the other driver did. In about two seconds, I went from a speed of 45 miles per hour to a dead stop.

I have to praise God for the fact that I was wearing my seat belt, because otherwise I would have been thrown from my car (probably through the windshield) and been strewn all over the highway. I'll say it again; had I not been wearing my seat belt, the crash could very possibly been fatal. But you know something that is absolutely amazing? From the time that I knew I was going to crash from the time that I knew I was going to be okay (about 2 or 3 seconds), I had absolutely no fear of death. My only thought was something like, "Oh man, I'm about to get into an accident." No fear of dying. Do you know why I do not fear death? It is because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when I die I will go to heaven and spend eternity with Jesus Christ, who is and always will be my Savior and my Lord.