If you think back to when you were first learning to drive, or maybe to the year or two after you just got your driver's license... you can probably remember the first "near miss" that you had. I think all new drivers have at least one, and its usually when you realize that you're not invulnerable, and had better watch what you're doing. Its usually at this point when you really start to improve as a driver. I know that two of my sisters could recount for you a near miss that I had when driving home from the airport with them in the car. But this isn't about my near miss...

Yesterday I helped a high school girl start down her path at becoming a better driver... or at least I hope. That's how I've decided to look on the experience of almost getting T-Boned by her while riding my bike. I was starting through an intersection where I had the right of way when she cruised along gabbing with her friend at 30 miles an hour, coming to a screeching halt about 3 inches (no exaggeration) from my leg, with a look of shock and horror that I can only assume means she and her friend pissed their pants. Of course at that moment my attitude was not nearly as healthy as it is now, and I gave her some choice words that I won't repeat here.

This is the perspective you can put on an experience when you almost get broadsided by a car vs. actually being broadsided by a car, having multiple bones broken, etc. It also reminds you that in a car vs. bike accident, the car wins every single time.