Words of Advice

My friend and I drove up Hwy 431 last night along the eastern border of southern Alabama. That road should be called the highway of death.

I have never seen so many crosses on the side of a road. Between Eufaula and Phenix City there must be at least 75 of them. I really don’t think I am exaggerating.

The eerie thing is each cross represents a human life lost on that highway. Each cross represents a enormous personal tragedy, a devastated family and ruined dreams.

I drive a ton of miles every year all over everywhere. But there is something about that 45 or so mile stretch of road that makes me nervous.

Before I was old enough to drive, I went with my dad to pick up a man who had been killed in an automobile accident. I remember reaching down to help put him on the stretcher and I lifted his leg and realized it was not attached.

Cold chills ran down my back that night.

Growing up in a house of undertakers and then later becoming an EMT and working with the ambulance service, I have great respect for automobiles. I’ve seen the ravages of fatal automobile accidents many times close up and personal.

I can still smell the mixture of alcohol and gasoline that I smelled so many times at those scenes.

Last night I thought about an experience I had in high school. I got in the car one day after school with a friend who decided we would drive some dirt roads. He drove as fast as that car would go - driving blindly as if it would be impossible to meet another car. It was a miracle we did not get killed that day.

I got out of that car and was sure of three things. I was sure thankful I was alive. And I was sure he was an idiot. And I was sure I would never get in a car with him again.

I wondered last night if that guy is still alive. I’m sure he is either dead or in prison or in an insane asylum.


But looking at cross after cross for 45 minutes as I drove down that highway, I was reminded that this thing we call life can be ours one moment and gone the next.

A word of advice: If you have to drive from Eufaula Alabama to Phenix City Alabama you might want to take the long way around.

The odds are not in your favor on that road.

In fact, in our world of cell phones and blackberries and driving automobiles at the same time, maybe we all need to be a little more careful.

In a split second one of those crosses on the side of the road could be ours.