Crash that didn´t happen

This happened many years back, when I had just got my driving licence. I had driven to my dance lesson and during that time the first snow had started to fall. And oh boy was there a lot of it! I could not believe my eyes, when I walked into the parking lot. Our car had summer tyres and I was horrified at the thought of driving in that blizzard. Still - if I wanted to get home I had to drive the car. We live in an area outside the city where buses went very rarely that time of the day.

So I got behind the wheel and started my way home. Everything went well because the city had sent all the snow plough -vehicles out. I began to relax a little. Until three kilometers from home when I reached the limit of the ploughing area. From then on the road was thickly covered with snow. It was very windy and because of that the very center of the road was almost free of snow. So I drove very carefully there. And then another car turned from behind a curve and I had to go back to my own lane.

I was a very inexperienced driver then and did not know how easily thick snow just grabs the car. But I sure found out it soon enough. Suddenly the car started veering towards a deep ditch on the right, filled with water. Instead of applying the breaks I accidentally first started driving faster and turned the steering wheel too much in the opposite direction. The car spinned sideways and headed directly towards the ditch on the other side - only there were also big trees there.

Time slowed down. It was quite amazing. I calmly noted that the other car was only a few seconds away from impact, driving directly to my car´s right hand side. I noticed the other car was braking from the way its headlights were moving. My car was going straight towards the trees and the ditch. Almost without any emotion I just thought that "Oh, is this it then?". I knew there was no way to avoid the crash, it really was a question of seconds.

The next moment I sat maybe 50 meters from the place the crash was to happen, in my car, driving normally towards home. I looked into the rear-view mirror and saw the backlights of the other car, it driving normally also.

I have no idea what could have happened. There is no way I could have steered the car away from that situation without the crash happening. But it never happened. In a blink of an eye everything changed and I was safe. I only remember how absolutely calm and relaxed I was, how time slowed down, myself observing me driving the car and calmly taking mental notes about the situation. There was no fear. Not while it was about to happen, and not later either.

I guess I started believing in guardian angels then.

Leena