Last week my friend was involved in a pretty bad car wreck — and while she escaped with only bad bruising I know it was a wake up call to me and hopefully everyone who hears her story.

My friend was on her way to work last week and when she looked down to get something out of her purse, for just a split second, she crashed into the back of another car. She said by the time she looked up, the accident was already set in motion and there was nothing she could do to avoid it.

At first she didn’t know what had happened. The air bags deployed and the powder nearly choked her because she has asthma. She said at first she didn’t know whether she was even alive or not. After the initial shock wore off, she slowly got out of the car just to prove to herself that she was alive.

At the scene of the accident, she said the man was walking around asking her what her problem was. She later remembered he kept asking where her passenger went. She was alone that day which will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and leads us to believe there may have been a guardian angel riding with her that day.

From the looks of her car, she should have been severely injured. Her right hand was really swollen and her chest still hurts from the impact of the airbag going off.

I have been preaching to her about not texting while driving and I know I make her a little nuts with it. We even devised a system so that there would be no texting while driving. She is also been known to apply makeup in the car, but after this accident, which didn’t involve either of those things, she is adamant that she won’t be doing anything beside driving while behind the wheel.

I am not without blame. I have been known to drive distracted at times and I have had to make a conscious effort to not to pick up my cell phone in the car. I know for me this has been a serious wake-up call to pay more attention while behind the wheel.

I’m so blessed that my friend was able to walk away from this without being seriously injured, but it does make you think how perilously close she came to losing her life. I’ve said it before and I think it bears repeating, none of us are guaranteed our next breath, so live life to it’s fullest every day.

One of the quotes that I live by is “Everything happens for a reason,” and maybe the reason behind this accident is to teach others to pay more attention when behind the wheel. Hopefully this will keep someone else from being hurt or killed in a car crash.

Mondee Tilley is a reporter for The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.