Of all the dangerous and high profile work I have done, nothing is more dangerous than simply being out in the road conducting police business.

Case in point. It was around this time of year back in 2002. Where I work, one of the major roads winds near a large cliff which has mudslides and falling rocks every year when it rains. The road is two lanes both ways, running East to West with a speed limit of 55 mph.

Anyhow, the rain had come again and as usual the cliffside started crumbling into the outside eastbound lane. My simple task that morning was to set up a cone pattern in this lane, deviating all traffic into the safe inside lane. My fellow officer set up the patrol vehicle in the outside lane with his lights on to direct vehicles to merge while we conducted our work.

I took a stack of four or five traffic cones and I began walking and setting cones perpendicluar to the roadway, one step at a time, dropping a cone with each step starting from the shoulder and working my way to the center lane. I didn't stop, but just slowly walked and dropped the cones. A very simple task. I was walking along and just as I was about to continue forward, I stopped in the road for no reason at all. To this day, I do not know why I stopped. Instead of taking another step, I just planted my foot right next to the first. The second that I stopped, a huge delivery van sped by, right in front of my nose at 55 mph. He didn't even know I was there. If I had taken that extra step like I planned, I would have been dead for sure. I was only inches away! Why did I stop? I had no idea the van was coming.

I am not a religious person at all and I rationalize based upon fact and science, but I must admit that it was very odd and I had a distinct sense of a little extra help. Almost like a hand had stopped me and said, "not just yet buster".

So that is my near-death experience. I must admit, it changed my perspective just a little. Because I had no reason to stop, but I did.