I saw the crash scene in my head before I got there

So I work as a news cameraman in a mid-size city. Fires, accidents, crime scenes. you get a call at 3am, you go. That's the job.

That night the call came in after 10pm. Fatal car accident out on a mountain highway. guy in the tunnel exit lane couldn't avoid a car that crossed over, head-on collision, driver dead. had already been two hours since it happened and traffic was still backed up bad.

"It's a big one, get here as fast as you can!!" the reporter on the phone sounded genuinely rattled. Couldn't get more details because the investigation was still ongoing, police were controlling all the info. standard stuff.

So I grab my camera, throw on clothes, tell my family what's up, and bolt. Scene was about an hour out. I start driving.

About 30 minutes in is when it happened.

Out of nowhere, this IMAGE just... appeared in my head. Like a video clip. except I had never seen it before in my life.

A small white car with the entire front completely destroyed. Hood folded all the way back. Glass everywhere. The airbag hanging limp, soaked in blood. And on the rear of the car, barely visible through the damage, one of those little elderly driver stickers¹. And above it. a license plate. With specific numbers. CLEAR as anything.

I hadn't been told the car type. I hadn't been told the plate number. Police don't release that info until the scene is processed. There was literally no way I should have known any of this.

I told myself it was just my brain pulling from old crash scenes I'd filmed over the years. Made sense, right? Occupational hazard. I kept driving.

Then I pulled up to the scene and got out of the car and I just. stopped.

It was IDENTICAL. Every single thing I had seen in my head was right there in front of me. The color. The car model. The way the front was crushed. The elderly driver sticker. The license plate numbers.

I went up to one of the officers and asked about the victim. 80 years old. Man in his 80s.

And no brake marks inside the car. None. Officer said he probably fell asleep at the wheel, or maybe had a sudden medical episode and lost consciousness. Just drifted into oncoming traffic without ever trying to stop.

I walked up to what was left of that car and put my hands together and bowed. I do that at every fatal scene, it's just something I do. But this time it felt different. Like I actually needed to.

I've covered fatal accidents for years since then. That has never happened again. Not once. I'm not a particularly spiritual person. I had never seen that man in my life.

I still don't know what that was.