Coincidence in 2010

For those of you who are new to my columns, this will be your first time to read this one. Those who have been along for the ride longer will recall that I published it over three years ago, but it is worth retelling the tale...

Co-in-ci-dence (kō in΄sә dans)  n. 1 a coinciding  2 an accidental, but seemingly planned, occurrence of events, ideas, etc. at the same time

I know you’ve heard the expression, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”  Well, I have a story to relate about just how appropriate that expression was to me last week. 

Call it a miracle, or a coincidence, or lack of coincidence–the meaning of that word will become clearer shortly–but I escaped what could have been a life-ending event on March 12, 2010. 

I had just that day heard about the falling rock that killed a woman in a 2004 Buick near Steamboat Springs, Colorado two days earlier.  It was one of those freak accidents that has probably a one-in-a-million chance of happening, but in this case it did. A small boulder fell from the face of a cliff and went through the roof of the car traveling over the road below, killing the woman passenger.

In case you don't want to read the article I linked to above, I'll tell you something else about it.  It was a coincidence that the car was even on that road.  It was traveling a temporary detour from the main route of travel, caused by a rockslide on I-70 in Glenwood Canyon.  But, I digress...

At about noon on Friday, I was traveling eastbound on I-20 near Aiken, SC.  I had my cruise control on and was barreling along at 70 mph.  There is a stand of pine trees in the median between the eastbound and westbound lanes, so you don’t even see the traffic going the other way. 

About 200 yards ahead of me a wheel, most likely from a truck on the westbound side, came out of those pines up ahead.  No, it wasn’t a tire; it was the whole wheel with a tire mounted on it.  Needless to say, it looked HUGE.

The wheel rolled down the embankment onto the pavement, and when it reached the concrete it started bouncing.  It bounced straight up about 10 feet and back down in the lane right ahead of where I was driving. 

When a tire, or any disk-like object starts bouncing, it is possible for it to come down sideways at an angle.  From that first bounce, it is unpredictable what the tire will do and which direction it will roll.  This one landed straight up and then continued its roll and disappeared into the forest on the right-hand side of the road.

The whole thing took place in the space of about 10 seconds.  I figured out later that I had missed being in the path of that bouncing wheel.  I didn’t even have time to react. I just watched incredulously as it crossed in front of me.

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that I would have suffered the same fate as that poor woman in Colorado, and you would have been reading or hearing about me in the news media.

Yes, the word coincidence really did play a part in my story.  Had my car and that wheel arrived at the same spot at the same time, I would have been history, but the incidence was a few seconds apart and I’m here to tell the story.

Do I believe in miracles?  Well, not really, but that was the closest thing to a miracle I’ve seen in my lifetime. It took about five minutes for the shock to set in, and then my mind started replaying the whole sequence of events.

Whew!!!  Somebody or something was sure looking out for me that day.