Why yes, it hurt…

So, I’m driving along at 60 on a motorway.

It’s 11PM, traffic is light, the thermometer in my brand new car on the first day of ownership is reading -1.5 degrees celcius.

I’m about 2 miles from my exit, and my final destination after travelling 500 miles in the prior 12 hours. I’m a breath away from home.

I check my rear view mirror. Nothing behind.

Moments later, a tremendous impact from my nearside behind. I see the central reservation. I see the hard shoulder and the barrier whils’t I travel backwards. I feel something soft hit me from my side as my head crashes into it. I see the central reservation, again, but this time its stationary, so obviously I am too.

I sit there. Looking. Not moving. Just looking. I’m in a car, my car. There’s smoke everyhwhere. White things hanging over the windows. The click of the hazard lights. I’m being asked if I’m ok.

In no more than 30 seconds, metal has been crunched, people have been thrown around and lives have been altered.

I don’t believe my luck. I’m not even sure yet if this really happened, or if I’m about to wake up and laugh at the terrible dream I just had. Either way, I’m so glad everybody walked away from this one with relatively minor injuries considering the forces that were involved here.

Irony is a powerful force too, I don’t think I’m going to be listening Headlights on Dark Roads by Snow Patrol again in the car.

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