All day long we make quick decisions in the bat of an eye, and most of them are of no consequence so we give it no lingering thought. There are times however, when they can mean life or death.
I well remember an incident long ago in Ky. Most of us who travel where the roads hug the mountains can remember seeing signs saying "falling rock area". The incident I remember was told by the survivors in an accident on one of those roads in Kentucky. A family with a baby was traveling in such an area when the passenger in the front seat handed a baby to someone in the back seat. Just as she had handed the baby over and turned around a huge falling rock landed on her spot in the car. The blow ended her life and wrecked the car. No one else was seriously injured. Had she not handed the baby to the back she too would have been killed. Who knows what prompted her to transfer the baby to the back, it is a mystery. But it happened in a split second, when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she had no knowledge of the rock hurtling toward her.
There must be millions of occasions when a split second has made all the difference, for good or for worse. It only takes a second to say "I do", but just think of all the people who have said it and lived to regret it! On the other hand there are just as many who never think of it so much as the consequence was for good.
Many split decisions are simply survival reactions. Once when my second grandson was around three I took him to a park nearby. This is a very pleasant place to go as it has a nice playground for youngsters and a long paved walking loop for adults. Also in a farm next to the park you can observe many Emus walking about. We had left the playground and were walking on the paved walk toward the Emu farm when suddenly out of seemingly no where, a vicious dog came speeding toward us. Without even thinking about it I picked up my grandson and turned my back to the oncoming dog. He lunged and caught me from the back, tearing my clothes and bruising my skin. Of course I was screaming for help and a man came from his house next to the park and retrieved his dog. I quickly left the park and headed home to call the sheriff and report the incident. A second before the dog appeared snarling and threatening, I had no thoughts of picking up my grandson and whirling away from the oncoming dog. It was a survival decision.
Another survival decision may or may not have made all the difference in an accident in 1970 one December day. My husband was traveling back home from a business trip in south Georgia. He was traveling west on a small concrete bridge with space only for two cars and a concrete railing. From the opposite direction came a flatbed truck with a tractor on the back. We know from witness behind my husband's car, that the truck was speeding and blew a tire causing the driver to lose control of his truck. The tractor bumped up as to fall over and then settled back down. Immediately it bumped again and this time fell onto the approaching car. Witnesses say they saw the brake lights come on just before the tractor fell. This leads me to believe that my husband was making a split decision to stop and hope to avoid the falling tractor. Would it have made a difference if he had sped up and gotten past the place of impact? Who knows? There is no way of knowing, but it was a survival decision.
There is no way to know if speeding up or slowing down would have saved his life, perhaps it did not matter as it may have happened anyway. What we do know is the impact his leaving has had on his family. I have always heard that in a vehicle accident both drivers are at fault. I do not believe that. The previous story is an example of one driver being an innocent victim. I have another one which happened back in 2007 on April Fools day, but this was no trick.
On a drizzly day around 12:30 I was traveling west on highway 369 heading for home and in no hurry. Suddenly there was a black blur in front of me. My air bag deployed and the car was filled with powder. I could not breath, I was struggling to get out when a lady came and started helping. What was the black blur? It was a car coming from the opposite direction. He had rounded a curve too fast, lost control and over corrected causing him to cut right in front of me. I survived thanks to the expertise of the medical staff and surgeons at Northeast Georgia Medical Center. And I must say also to the love and care of my family, over a long period of time. How could that accident have been my fault?
I once heard a wise man say that when he got behind the wheel of his car his only thought was to drive safely and arrive safely. I like that. But even when you do just that, you may still be a victim of a split second decision or of a careless, thoughtless deed. Our legislators are always working on laws to make citizens safe. It may not be perfect but at times we need laws to discourage careless acts when our cars are out in heavy traffic. I do not see how we can legislate wise split second decisions. That is part of life.
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