this is not a journal title

In a year and a half of my super long commute, I am now up to my third harrowing experience driving - first was the blizzard 13 Dec 2007, second was my flat tire 18 Nov 2008 (which I apparently never blogged), and this third one was a truck losing a wheel right after I drove past. I did see the aftermath of a dump truck that lost a wheel over the median around a year ago, but that didn't directly affect me.

Today I was driving on my nice long drive home and on a long straight stretch I noticed a red van driving in the breakdown lane with its hazards on. He was driving a little fast for the shoulder, and he wasn't entirely in it, and I couldn't tell what was going on, so I preemptively moved into the left lane. The highway wasn't that crowded, it was around 4:30 in the afternoon which is before main rush hour, so as I passed there was no one in the right lane between myself and the van, and the other cars in the right lane were a ways ahead of us and the semi truck in the right lane was aways behind myself and the van. As I passed I watched the van and found myself thinking that the two wheels on the left seemed like they were tipped so the bottoms were pointing outwards more than they should. I was just wondering if that was the issue when I looked back at the van in my rear view mirror and watched the front left wheel come off and the shaft throw off sparks as it hit the pavement.

I quickly threw my eyes back at the road, taking note of the mile marker as I passed it, fumbled for my cell with my right hand, and 911 transferred me to the state police just as I pulled off at the rest stop. I was pulling off because I realized I was shaking. These (mental) near-misses always get to me - "mental" because the van was never physically close to me, I never had to adjust my driving, but in my head was the realization that if things had been timed differently I could've been involved. Surprisingly the van did not seem to swerve when its axle hit the pavement, and for the tiny bit I watched I didn't see any other cars hit it, so perhaps everyone was okay in the end. Just realized now I was shaken up enough by it that I didn't remember to put my cell out of emergency tracking mode; I usually do that a bit after completing the 911 call.

( If you've never called 911 for a fellow motorist, here's what to expect )

I'd managed to push today's incident out of my head for a while (I made pizza!), but watching a car chase in Numb3rs with a large red SUV brought it back, and after telling T$ I was still shaking so I typed it up here, and now I'm still shaking, so I think I will go do something relaxing instead of shaking or trying to work. Or maybe work will drive it out.