Meteor with green trail heading west over Cecil Georgia observed by Law Enforcement Officer

On 2-3-09 at approximately 0059 hours, Eastern Time, I was heading westbound on Cecil Road, located in Cook County Georgia less that 2 miles from the city limits of Cecil Georgia. It had been raining but had stopped earlier in the night and the sky was mostly clear. The constellation, Orion, was it my 11 o’clock position.
For some reason, I happened to look up at the sky and at about the 1 o’clock position, I observed what appeared to be a rather large meteor traveling west.
he object only lasted about 3 seconds and had an almost fluorescent green trail that followed but wasn’t very long. On a comparison stand point, if I were to hold a corn kernel about 12 inches away from my nose, that’s about how large the object was that passed by.
I feel pretty confident that it was a meteor that just happened to miss earth due to it’s trajectory but it did bring concern as to just how big it really was. I have seen several “shooting stars” in my life but this observation certainly was a first for me.