What's up with the glass?

Monkey is slow to go places.  Any place.  It is beyond frustrating.  Going to the zoo?  Monkey is dilly dallying getting ready and doing headstands on the couch.  Going someplace not so much fun or he's not in the mood to go to?,  he will complain about everything from his underwear itching, the shoes he wore yesterday suddenly not fitting, being hungry still, and lying on the floor - whining.  This was the case today.  In fact he was doing all of these, including the underwear.  But the itchy underwear was the dirty underwear he was still wearing but he couldn't decide which pair of underwear he wanted to wear and couldn't he just wear the pair he wore yesterday.  The dirty, itchy pair?

On and on this went until I ended up putting his clothes, shoes, and socks on while he kept saying he didn't want to go to school.  This makes me very nervous as he really does like school and everyday after school he says "School was awesome!"

Regardless, we were running out of the house, yanking coats, hats, and mittens on.  Complaints about specific pairs of mittens being worn and not being able to find a hat (that was later found in the car).  Off to school we drive, my nerves a bit too frazzled.  I turn out of the neighborhood and less than a 1/2 mile out there were 2 cars that looked like they had been dancing with each other.  The fronts and sides of both cars were either missing or smashed.  The police were there directing traffic around it and the ambulance and fire truck were approaching.

I found myself saying a silent thank you to Monkey for making us run late.  A few minutes earlier and that could easily have been us.  I mentioned once to Hubby how that could have been us.  His response had been that if we had been there, we might have been able to keep the accident from occurring at all.  This didn't exactly make me feel better and left me with a terrible feeling.  Although, if this was true, how many accident did I actually prevent?  Any at all?

So who's right?  Would I have been in a dangerous accident with my children in the backseat or would I have prevented the accident from occurring?  I suppose it would depend on who was at fault in the accident.

Is there a way to think of the glass half full on this or should I just be grateful that it wasn't me and hope that everyone involved is safe?

Vicky