Out of body experiences and death. Are they related?

When we lived in Arizona, we used to go on adventures in our car at night (when it cooled off). We would drive out of the city and turn down small roads that led into the deeper desert. It was an amazing way to explore. We saw wild beasts and lots of snakes.

One night, as we were exploring, I suddenly felt this overwhelming sensation that I wasn't in my own body and I was shocked to be sitting there. At the same time, I felt far removed from my body, as if I wasn't really there. I could barely see and I lost most of my hearing and touch. It lasted a brief moment and then passed once I fought my way back through the cloud.

We drove around for awhile longer and then headed back home. When we got toward the main road, I saw a fire on the other side of the road. Someone had driven off of the main highway and their little Toyota truck was smashed and turned upside down. The car was on fire. The desert was burning for about 10 yards in each direction. This had happened around the time that I had that strange sensation. I was immediately freaked out.

I knew that the person in that truck had not survived and I wasn't brave enough to approach the truck to find out. I rushed to the nearest house and asked them to call the fire department (this was before we had cell phones).

When we got back to the scene, the fire and police were cleaning up and the EMT's were putting a covered body into an ambulance.

This makes me wonder, was I briefly "visited" by this person the moment they died? Was their spirit looking for somewhere to be because the body that it was in had suddenly died? What would have happened if the person's spirit was stronger than mine? Would I have been "possessed"? Am I possessed and don't realize it? Did my brain retain any information about that person's life? If so, does that information affect my subconscious mind and my dreams?

I don't think I believed in ghosts before that night. I still don't believe in apparitions, but I was definitely affected by this person's death. We were the closest bodies to the accident by miles, so maybe we were the only two available.

If this is true, then what impact does death have for people living near hospitals and other places where people often die? Are nurses and doctors affected by this when they lose patients? Does this phenomenon only happen in accidental and unexpected deaths? Maybe it happened because this person had a traumatic end and wasn't expecting it so they weren't prepared to leave their body.

I'm not sure if I'll ever know for sure what happened, but it has had an impact on my beliefs since then.