Monday, July 23, 2012

One Way Bridge

July 23

When I was 19 years old I lived in Tracy, California. One night I was out with some friends in Stockton, about 20 miles away. I was driving home alone about 2 am on old Highway 50. The highway splits into two high narrow bridges over the San Joaquin River, one for north bound and one for south bound traffic. The bridges are steep so that you can’t see the other side.

There was no traffic on the road at that hour and I was traveling the speed limit. I was in the left hand lane going up the south-bound bridge when, for some unexplained reason, I steered into the right hand lane. A moment later I was in the middle of the bridge when out of nowhere, a car came speeding the wrong way in the lane I had just left.
If I hadn’t changed lanes there would have been a head on collision in the middle of that high narrow bridge. There was nowhere to go except over the edge into the river below. I know that I would not have survived the crash or the river.

Decades later I still shiver at the thought of what could have happened that night. There was no reason for me to change lanes. I was saved by an angel that night, I’m absolutely sure.

Mary (Kiser) Bartlein
Panther Ridge, Manatee Fl.

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