Screeching, Smoking Tires!!!

It might be the closest I've ever come to serious injury or death.

I've done things in my life (younger days) that could have been perceived as risky, maybe stupid, but never found myself, intentionally or unintentionally, in the path of something potentially deadly.

Until this morning.

I was running errands between newscasts in southwest Bakersfield, just west of the Marketplace on Ming Ave.

Sitting at a red light, waiting to go west through the intersection of Ming and Old River. I was sitting in the middle lane with a dark colored mini-SUV on my left and another 4-door car on my right.

The light changed to green and the SUV on my left sped away quickly. Once I got about 15 feet into the intersection, the SUV was gone and I got my first look at the beige-colored Toyota Highlander Hybrid ROARING at me.

The dark-haired woman driver was going north on Old River at a high rate of speed, when the light changed to red and she was too busy to notice.

How did I know she was driving fast?

It must have been the screeching sound and smoke from the tires as she slid towards me.

New cars have anti-lock brakes that prevent it from "locking up" the brakes. You have to be pushing the brake pedal through the floor board to get a new car sliding.

My momentum carried me just out of reach, as I looked up in the rear-view mirror just in time to see her slide just past the back end of the car.

I stopped in the opposite crosswalk. I paused for a moment to make sure I was OK and no one else had gotten T-boned in the process.

I glanced just long enough to see the woman pause, then pick up her cell phone and continue through the intersection.

If there wasn't any traffic now starting to come behind me, I was half-tempted to swing around and go after her.

I wasn't angry, but irritated by her lack of attention. Annoyed by her use of a cell phone in the now blue-tooth state of California. Terrified by what might have been for me and anyone else in that intersection.

I started thinking of my wife who was struck by a red-light runner last December. It was foggy and the other driver apparently didn't see the light. Lori and my son Michael escaped without injury.

I, at least, didn't get hit.

I don't think there's a driver alive who hasn't been distracted at some point in their life and had a close call of some kind. We've all been there right?!

Only this time, I was the potential victim.

I hope the woman went through some of the same anxieties I did as she was sliding out of control through the intersection. I hope she drove another 100 feet, pulled off the road and reflected on what happened. I hope she didn't pick that cell phone back up and say to whoever was on the other end of the line, "Boy that was a close call (laugh)."

And I hope, we never cross paths again.