How Being In A Car Accident Has Effected Me In Ways I Wasn't Expecting...

Two weeks ago I was involved in a serious car accident (my first in 51 years) on the motorway (nobody was hurt), and I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

Tomorrow (Sunday 16th) it will be two weeks since I was involved in a serious car accident on the M4. My daughter, Tabitha randomly decided she’d like to go to Bath, as she’d never been, and wanted to see the Roman baths. So three of us (me, Tom, Tabitha - my son, Marlow didn’t want to come, so stayed at home) went for the day (or more accurately, for the afternoon by the time we got down there). On the way home - it was dark (the clocks had gone forward the night before) and rainy, around 5.00pm, and I was asleep (as I often am in the car when I’m not driving - motion makes me sleepy). Suddenly the car made an emergency stop, which threw me forward, and (obviously) woke me up. Because I’d been asleep the shock was greater than it would have been (I presume?), as I had no idea it was coming. It was a huge shock, and instinctively my hand immediately flung back (when I’m driving and have to stop suddenly, my hand always automatically reaches to touch whoever is in the passenger seat next to meet, as a protection reflex I guess) to Tabitha, sitting behind Tom. She was fine. Tom was fine. What just happened?? Tom had to fill us in as he was the only one who saw/knew. We were in the fast lane, and all the traffic ahead was suddenly slowing down and there were red break lights up ahead. Tom then had to brake suddenly as the traffic (we were in the fast lane - more of that later) was fast moving, but the cars ahead were almost at a standstill.