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Rounding the gentle right-hand curve, we were startled to find a speeding car in our lane closing fast.
Hitting the brakes, we steered our truck into the bike lane and as close to the guardrail as we could without smashing into it. The oncoming car jerked the same way.
Don't become part of the story. It is a rule all credible journalists ascribe to. Yet here we were, about to become a headline: "Maui News staffer killed by wrong-way driver." Through the years, within a radius of five miles from this very spot, we had covered more than a dozen traffic fatalities, many of them innocents killed by negligent or drunk drivers who crossed left of center. Was our number up?
Traffic had been light for a Saturday night as we made the turn from Honoapiilani Highway onto North Kihei Road. Coming home from an assignment, we may have been thinking about the work yet to be done, but, fortunately, we also had both hands on the wheel and our eyes on the road. Now pinned against the guardrail, watching the car grow large in the windshield, we thought: "Here we go, head-on collision."
But the driver swerved at the last possible second to flash by without delivering so much as a scratch. How our driver's side mirror wasn't sheared off we will never know. Thankfully, there were no cars close behind us. There came no crash.
It took a few moments to regain our composure enough to continue home. Having witnessed the aftermath of such collisions, and spent time with the families of victims, we knew how bad it could have been.
A couple days later, we stopped by the scene to inspect the two long skid marks left by the other driver's tires. Measuring more than 60 feet long, the marks exited our lane, crossed the bike lane and touched the grass berm before turning violently to the right.
Was the driver drunk, drugged, asleep or texting? It doesn't really matter. The fact is, whenever we take to the road there is a chance of encountering someone who is drunk, drugged or texting. All we can control is what is in our control.
That means driving defensively, wearing our seat belts and keeping our full attention on the road. If we had been texting that Saturday night, we would probably be dead. Same if we were driving impaired. Only by immediately hitting our brakes and swerving to within a hair of the guardrail did we give the other driver room to zoom by.
The second reminder we received is this: life is short. Savor it. Make sure to tell the people we love that we love them. In the blink of an eye, through no fault of our own, it can all be taken away.