I Almost Got Killed On The Parkway

I'm knocking on wood the whole time that I'm writing this - I seem to have really bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but good luck of somehow managing to escape what could be literally deadly situations.

This trend started just about two years ago when I was driving to work on the Garden State Parkway and an object smashed my windshield.

I somehow managed to stay calm, not hit other cars or the barriers, and escaped unharmed.

Then, unbelievably, the exact same thing happened in the exact same place only a little more than a year later.

The second time was worse because the object hit the driver's side instead of the passenger's side and actually broke through the windshield. Again, I was terrifyingly lucky to end up with only vehicle damage.

This past weekend I once again found myself on the Garden State Parkway, in a situation that could have literally ended my life.

I was coming back from a family BBQ, heading south on the Parkway through Union County, one of the worst stretches of the whole Parkway, in my opinion.

The traffic was moving at a ridiculously fast pace, and it made an impression on me that a number of people were driving incredibly recklessly.

To the point that I said, out loud to nobody but my dog, "man, people are driving like maniacs tonight!".

I was in the second lane from the right going with the flow of traffic, when I looked in my rear view mirror just in time to see a car come flying up behind me, and tailgating to the degree that I literally couldn't even see their headlights in my mirror.

While it may be the urge of some to give the person a brake check, this was a situation where they were so close that a brake tap would have definitely resulted in being rear-ended.

There was nowhere to go in the right lane, so I put my blinker on and moved into the next lane to my left to get away from the tailgater.

That's when disaster struck.

Literally the second I moved out of the lane, a car that had been in the far right lane suddenly swerved into the spot that I had just been occupying.

The guy who had just been tailgating me had no time at all to react and smashed into the other car at at least 75 miles an hour.

Anyone who has ever been in or near an accident knows what followed next - the absolutely nauseating sound of a high speed crash.

If I hadn't moved when I did, there's no question that it would have been me.

As a screaming wreck engulfed the Parkway right next to me, I somehow was able to get through the ensuing mayhem without becoming a victim of it.

Of course, I was shaken up.

I also had no idea if any debris had hit my brand new car (which I've literally had for all of two weeks). So I got off of the roadway to collect myself and give the car a good once-over.

By some miracle, both myself and my vehicle escaped what could have easily become a tragedy.

It seems like these days people are driving more recklessly than ever.

From speeding to tailgating, texting to road rage, not a day goes by that I don't see someone risking the lives of themselves and everyone else on the road, too.

Just today in fact, I used the #77 aggressive driver hotline to report a car that was so impatient that the driver passed every other car on the Parkway on the right hand shoulder without even slowing down.

No joke, they had to be going 80 at least, and just went right onto the shoulder like it was any other lane to pass traffic that apparently wasn't going briskly enough for their liking.

I remember my parents telling me when I first got my license that it wasn't me that they worried about, it was everyone else.

And it's so true.

It's one of those things that you don't like to think about, but when we go on the roads for our daily commutes, we're literally putting our lives in the hands of everyone else on the roadway with us.

I'm superstitious enough that I have to knock on wood, cross my fingers, and thank my lucky stars when I say this, but someone must have been watching over me this past Sunday, because I certainly don't know how I managed to avoid the disaster caused by the recklessness of others.

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