A thought that crossed my mind while watching "The Color of Truth"

This is probably one of my two favorite S1 episodes (the other being The Right Hand of God). Of course, as a refresher, this is the episode Sam leaps into an elderly man who works for the elderly widow of Alabama's former governor and is there to save her from being killed by the train after her car stalled on the train tracks.

While watching it on DVD a few days, something occurred to me about the set up in the original timeline vs Sam being there. With Sam as Jesse, he gets arrested and spends a short time in jail which causes Miss Melny to drive causing her to be on the very same spot under (effectively) different circumstances.

But it struck me for the first time since I started watching Quantum Leap in 2007...what led up her being alone and driving her car to end up in that spot in the original history? I imagine it's certainly not Jesse being in jail at that time. It seems as if he would have been working for her at the time and it seems clear Jesse does a lot of her driving for her.

Maybe Miss Melny decided for whatever reason to drive alone somewhere, but I wonder why?

I mean it's not a huge mystery without a simple enough guess, but it just was a thought that crossed my mind.