What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

More or less that is all i remember from it, a guy goes for a road trip and has a near death experience on the first day or so. he continues on with his trip, calling his mother to let her know he arrived fine only to find out he actually died days earlier in an accident.
I read it for English class 6th grade (2007)
Thank you in advance!

This sounds like an episode from the original Twilight Zone called The Hitch-Hiker. Maybe it was turned into a written story later.

That Twilight Zone episode was based on an old radio play from the 1940s. All are a woman main character though, and she keeps seeing this hitch-hiker along the road, after a comment from a mechanic fixing her flat tire that there had been a bad accident. That story does end with her calling her mother, only to find out that she died in that accident. The radio play could easily have been adapted into a short story book, I think many of the Twilight Zone episodes were - I read an adaptation of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street in my sixth grade reading book.

There is a Roald Dahl story of the same name, but different plot - that one is two men. I don't think it fits though.

Wikipedia says the radio play featured a male character, while the TV show was had a woman as the main character.

Ryan, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

The fact that the MC died and doesn't know it seems to be a spoiler that does not belong in the header.

SamSpayedPl, good point. I edited the topic header/title to remove the spoiler.

Ryan, spoilers are fine in the comments. Just give us a clear warning before revealing a spoiler.

I edited the plot details in the header. Feel free to update it by clicking the small "edit" link after the header - using the full desktop website. This doesn't work on the mobile app or mobile website.

Update from Ryan (April 17, 2021):

"Yes! It was a 1940s radio play called The Hitch-hiker (the more obvious the title the harder it is to find) adapted into short stories and a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone (the commenter was right on that hunch)"