I was driving home late from work. The weather was hellish, with rain pounding the windscreen at an angle.

I could barely see out as my wipers squeaked across my view, trying to keep up with the torrential downpour.

As I rounded a corner I caught a glimpse of a figure in my headlights, walking towards me, waving.

I slowed down and pulled up alongside him before leaning across and winding the passenger window down

“Anything wrong?” I asked the man

“There’s been an accident up ahead. The cars come off the road and gone into a ditch,” He replied with urgency, leaning in towards me

“You better get in,” I said as I opened the passenger door

He quickly jumped in and we took off up the road. I looked across at him as he sat there with water dripping off his hair and pooling in the footwell around his shoes.

After a short drive, he pointed up a narrow lane off the road. “It’s just up there,” he said.

I could see the car up ahead, turned over in a ditch with the headlights still on.

I pulled my car up just in front of it. Me and my new friend both jumped out. I sprinted to the car while he ran back to the road to try and find more help.

I could see a woman sitting in the passenger seat.

I wrenched her door open. She was unresponsive but groaning. I could see a girl in the back seat looking frightened. I quickly reassured her that she would be ok and would be out of the car soon.

Since my drenched friend still wasn’t back I decided to phone for help myself.

I stayed with the car until the emergency services arrived, then returned to my car as they got to work freeing the women and girl. My passenger still hadn’t returned

After a quick talk with the police, I headed home, leaving just as the recovery van started to winch the car out of the ditch.

I didn’t think much more about that night until I was flicking through the dull and dreary local paper about a week later.

I got to a page that had a piece about the bad weather and mentioned the crash. I was skimming through it mindlessly until they mentioned the woman had lost her husband in the crash. I looked at the picture next to it and stopped dead.

I was him. The man who got in my car. He had died on impact.

Even now when I’m driving home in the rain I swear I sometimes catch a glimpse of him standing there waving at me.