A concert and a dodge

The Blue man Group is a very cool concert. The irony that I see them this weekend, in a place very far from their any of their home bases is not lost on me. Partially because I had to drive several hours to see them. But most especially because I lived in a regular show city and never ever saw them when I lived there. Mostly because there was always something more pressing that I needed to spend the ticket money on.

We began the long drive home, fairly late at night, down a four lane highway that we've both driven many times before. This highway is fairly busy, even late at night, so there were plenty of on coming headlights from the other side of the meridian to keep us awake and such.

Suddenly, about half way home, we came around a corner and the headlights coming at us seemed unusually bright. My first thought was that they were those new halogen type headlights - the ones that are so bright I wonder how they can be legal since they essentially blind all the other drivers on the road, something I think would be a hazardous condition that shouldn't be encouraged. But then the angle wasn't quite right, so I thought it was maybe a car on a crossroad, or a side road, whose headlights were coming at us at such a strange angle.

By the time we both realized that the headlights looked so bright and at such a strange angle, we were side by side with the vehicle, who was travelling the opposite direction in our left lane.

Shocked would be an understatement.

My first thought was for the car we had just passed, who was still behind us and who the driver travelling the wrong way up the highway would soon encounter. But when we turned to watch, it was apparent we were the clue that sunk in because the minivan was braking and pulling off the road. So at least there wasn't going to be an accident as a result of this person's wrong way driving.

That was a relief.

Realizing that we were lucky we weren't in the left passing lane was another relief.

I've always wondered when hearing about head on collisions in good weather why they happen. Living in a part of the world where most highways are straight and wide, and you can see oncoming traffic, often for miles, I wonder how people are unable to avoid such collisions.

But now I know.

We met this wrong-travelling vehicle coming out of a turn at the top of a hill. So we didn't see his headlights for long before our respective 110kph speeds rapidly ate up the distance between us. Because we were on a curve, it was also a little harder to determine the angles between us, the oncoming vehicle, and the position of our side of the road at the point where we saw his headlights.

But one of the biggest things that I suspect leads to head on accidents, even in clear weather is plain old disbelief. My brain generated a number of other explanations for the odd looking headlights when I first saw them. It was only when the other possibilities had been eliminated and it became evident that it had to be the unthinkable - that a car was driving the wrong way on the highway toward us - that my brain accepted that possibility and acted upon it.

Because let's face it, we've all had that experience of seeing lights on a crossroad, or a flash of light off a side window, or a shadow that has made us think there's a vehicle there that isn't, or that it's travelling differently than it actually is. (On a road trip one time, all three of us driving kept thinking there was a car in our blind spot when we'd shoulder check because the stupid rental car company had plastered a sticker on the rear side window and we kept thinking it was an object outside the car) It's just a momentary flash, but it happens often enough, that we doubt our own senses.

Seeing headlights coming toward you as your round a curve, the first thought is that it must be a trick of the light, as has happened at other times before. It's only when the visual evidence continues to mount that you realize this is indeed a situation that is out of the ordinary and the unthinkable could happen in the next moment. I can imagine that for some people, the realization that the unthinkable is indeed going to happen comes too late and they cannot avoid the collision.

Complacency and the belief that everything is progressing normally saves us from braking for things that aren't there (which would make us look like doofuses), but it also slows down our acceptance of the things that are there, especially when they shouldn't be.