It was just not my time

It was  2004 and a typical summer season in the moving business , I was driving to work in morning and as usual I was thinking of all the things that I had to do. Have you ever been driving to suddenly realize that you have been driving? You have no idea how you even got to where you are? Especially on the way to work and the way home. You kinda go into auto pilot and day dream or you recount the days events in your head not even realizing your surroundings.

Well I guess that is what happened to me this morning in 2004.

I was on the road to Arpin just like hundreds of days before that and my thoughts must of wondered off, I took the curve and the next thing I remember was coming to and shaking my head to try to clear my head, my emergency airbags has deployed and it was kinda smokey.
I was driving a new Ford Focus at the time and I never wore my seat belts but this new call would ding every 30 seconds if they were not clicked in so I was wearing it that morning. Thank God or I am sure that I would not be here today.

After I was able to focus I got put of my car and noticed skid marks in front of me when I followed them quickly with my eyes they led me to a flat bed tow truck about 20 yards from me. He was side ways and pushed up against the fence on the sidewalk. I stumbled toward him and when I reached his cab he got out shaking his head, asking what had just happened.

He seemed OK and then I noticed that he had a forklift on the back of his flatbed.
We called 911 and while we waited we were trying to piece it all together. It happened so fast.
It seems as though when I took the curve I swayed into his lane just as he was taking the curve in the opposite direction.

As I walked back to my car I noticed the front completely pushed in, the bottom brake peddle was pushed in and up, I noticed on the way to the hospital that my leg was bleeding and when I lifted up my pants I saw where the brake peddle hat hit my bone and started cut in , it could of easily have taken my foot completely off.

Before the police arrived a fellow employee stopped to see if I was OK and he ended up taking me to the hospital, my first thoughts was actually to call my daughter because at the time she worked up the street from Arpin and would be passing my now totalled car on the way to her job that morning. I did not want her to panic so I called her on the way to the hospital.

It seems like once I did call her I was able to breathe and it was at that time that I started to feel muscle aches and noticed the blood.

After all that I was fine, a little shoulder and rib injury and a cut leg but overall for hitting a flat bed truck with a forklift on it doing probably between 40 and 45 mph I was blessed....

It was just not my time.