On my way home tonight I came as close to my own demise as I have ever been before. I was stopped at the corner on my bicycle with a fellow bicyclist next to me and a truck behind me. The car shown on the left, struck a van about a block down the street then hit a Jeep, which flipped over on its roof and somehow continued on down the block at an incredible rate of speed considering it had no front end and slipped behind me by about 5 feet and struck the truck behind me spinning it around. He couldn’t have been going less than 70 miles an hour in a 35. Several people were hurt including one of the passengers in the PT Cruiser. All and all, a very unnerving experience. Fortunately, the driver of the truck behind me had the presence of mind to realize that he could have avoided the hit by going forward, but instead deciding to take the hit full on rather than run over the two cyclists in front of him. He’s my new best friend to be sure.
Currently, I’m attempting to bring down the huge amounts adrenaline in my system right now with a nice, strong gin and tonic. So far it’s not working, but I have confidence that a few more doses and I should start calming down. It’s a weird feeling I’ve got right now and it’s almost bringing out my old Catholic guilt. If you look at the photo, you can see a man (one of the passengers) laid out on the street and there were several more injuries. However, all I could feel and am still feeling now is a sense of overwhelming elation that I escaped unscathed. Additionally, for the last few hours, colors have seen brighter and sharper than I can ever recall them being. I’m sure it’s all a cliche and probably nothing more than an overly excited nervous system, but still a strange feeling.
I hope everyone ends up being ok and I’ll drink to my health and theirs . . .