The road I had driven a hundred times
I am not a reckless driver. I do not speed. I do not drive tired. I am the guy who leaves five minutes early so I do not feel rushed.
None of that mattered on a Tuesday night in October.
I was driving home from work on a route I know completely. A car came through the intersection from the left and the headlights hit me dead in the face. Full LED brights at close range. Everything went white.
I am not talking about squinting and struggling. I am talking about my entire vision gone.
White. Nothing. No road, no curb, no anything.
I did not see the pole until I was already on the curb.
"The police report says I lost control of the vehicle. It does not say I was temporarily completely blinded by a legal headlight. That is not a box on the report."
I sat in the hospital waiting room at 2am looking at photos of my car and trying to understand how a completely normal drive home ended like that. That is when I started researching. What I found shook me.
Three seconds of white. That is all it took.