Not 5 minutes but a microslice of time

Yesterday evening on The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge near Washington DC.
Headed outbound towards the Virginia side of the Potomac River.
I had missed the turn for the Kennedy Center where we had tickets for the 7:30 PM performance of Romeo & Juliet by the Kirov Ballet and we were stuck going across the bridge, looking for a place where we could loop around and head back into the city to try again, like a missed approach while landing a plane.
It was only a moment, a slice of time with no real significance to every car on the bridge but one.
I heard a metallic sound behind my van.

For some reason I looked out my rear view mirror and saw a moment of real significance for whoever was in the SUV I saw cartwheeling in the traffic behind me. That's the first time I have ever seen a moment like that as it happened. It's frozen there in my memory...no, it wasn't in slow motion like the moviemakers would have us think. This vehicle was rolling, no spinning is more like it...spinning time after time along it's long axis and even bouncing a bit as the side of the car hit the pavement. I'm sure I could hear the sound of it, even the crunching sound of the glass as the windshield and side windows disintegrated with the impact of each contact with the roadway.

By the time we had turned and come back inbound on the bridge there were emergency vehicles everywhere. I'm so glad I wasn't behind that vehicle. We surely would have been involved in the wreck just because the spectacle would have frozen our attention on what was happening.

I can see it now as I write this and I wonder about the people in that SUV. Did anyone just walk away?

Comments

[lettershaper]

Very much enjoyed the time I spent here; especially enjoyed '5 minutes', for some, that can encompass a lifetime...as a poet and an avid reader, I found it enriching as well as intresting. I thank you...