Split second between life and death

I narrowly avoided a car accident where a split second difference would've meant serious injury or even death. By a stroke of luck, I was spared.

On the way back from lunch, I was stopped at a red light. I was the front most car in the left lane, ready to make a left turn. As luck would have it, I was a bit out of it and was distracted from paying attention to the stoplight. After the stoplight turned green, I didn't even notice. The person in the passenger seat mentioned it was green. Before proceeding, I checked the light to make sure it was green. At this point in time, I proceeded to step on the gas. I usually don't check my left to make sure it's safe, but I did since I was a bit out of it. I saw a car barreling down at me from the left at what seemed like 40mph or 50mph. It seemed like he didn't even know he had a redlight. I slammed the brakes as hard as I could and hoped for the best. I felt my breaks lock up and the tires squeal. The other vehicle just narrowly missed me.

If I had proceeded through the intersection when the stoplight turned green, I surely would've been t-boned on the driver side of the car. With the speed the other car was traveling, it would've been a pretty nasty, especially if he would've run into the driver side door.

Ever since then, I've been playing back this incident through my mind and how lucky I was. It was just a stroke of luck that I didn't proceed through the intersection immediately when it had turned green.