Almost had a bad accident tonight...

[woaface]

I almost had an accident tonight. I've never been so angry and scared in my life (minus childish outburts as a child and how I feel about abortion...which I feel angry about, but don't get angry about you know?) Anyways. I'm comin down the road with a friend, we're chatting listening to music, I'm doing almost exactly the speed limit (give or take 1mph). We're just relaxing, feelin' good. Right, so we're in the far right lane and this dark blue tiny car pulls a little past me, flickers her turn signal on to get in my lane. I can't slow down too much because I'm in the middle of an intersection where the light had gone yellow, and there's a truck right up my butt. I get a little ready, I touch my foot to the brake and I lay my hand on the horn. She slacks off to where I'm in her blind spot, but hesitates to get over and so I assume she sees me. She slows way down and tries to pull into my car to get to a gas station. This all happened very quickly, only 10 feet after the intersection. I slammed down the horn and held it, braked really hard, and swerved in the break down lane to avoid her...which happened by inches. Like I said, I was scared and angry. I about wet myself, and I have never cursed so much in my life. We were doing about 50mph and had she whacked me, it would have been dead on with my door, and at that angle, I would have slid the other way no doubt, and with only 3 feet of room left in the road, I would have nailed the 6 inch curb which at that speed and angle would have no doubt, 100% flipped the car at least once. I had a friend in the car so she would have taken the rest of the impact after me. I'm so glad I wasn't speeding, doing the right thing in traffic, in the far lane, and paying so much attention. It was like something held her car back, I was so sure she was going to hit me.

Man...I can remember so much. I asked my friend, "What do you remember? Isn't it weird how your brain goes hyperactive and looks at everything?" She said "The gravel" So odd...can't complain now! So glad I'm ok!

Ya'll be careful ya hear!!! Had I had a Marauder, she would have toasted me:D :uzi:

[teamrope]

It's OK James...Deep breaths.... Breath in.... Hold it...Let it out. Now repeat that 2 or 3 times and remember... You are driving one of the safest cars on the road today with the five star ratting and all.

Your car weighs in at over 4200 lbs. Hers weighs all of what, 2-3000 lbs. Remember physics. She would have to get a pretty good run from the side to send you into the curb. With luck she might have paid for your MM upgrade :D

I've had several close calls lately. Usually younger drivers in a hurry. Yesterday morning I was doing 5 over the speed limit with the CC set, and a young lady in a Saturn passed me with questionable clearance for oncoming traffic. The shoulder was paved 4 ft past the white line so I just gave her some room. She passed me with a little over a foot of her car never crossing the yellow line.

No big deal, I've driven enough to know the difference between close calls, and CLOSE calls. Just one of those things that comes with ol... I mean middle age.

The main thing is you avoided letting her kiss your car with out loosing control of the car. I short, everything is OK.

[Bigdogjim]

Any one you can drive/walk away from are OK!

Glad your just shaken a little.

Otherwise OK!

Let it go and move on:)

[woaface]

ok:) I'm cool now. I do love how safe I feel in my car, it reacted remarkably tonight:up:

[martyo]

I about wet myself...
Don't worry, Todd does this all the time. He tells me you get used to it after a while.

[Petrograde]

Glad to hear you and your friend are ok. There's a lot of idiots out there, you better watch 'em,... 'cause they're not watching you! ...or the road....

[Haggis]

... flickers her turn signal on to get in my lane.

We don't even get that in the D.C. area. They just pull right over on you without a second glance. Glad to hear you and your friend are ok. When idiots like her try something like that, I try to speed up to block them from coming over on me, if I can. I know not the smartest thing at times, but people need to learn patience and respect for their fellow drivers.

[gja]

There is one that is particularly salient:
"Any landing you walk away from is a good one"

[Bluerauder]

There is one that is particularly salient:
"Any landing you walk away from is a good one"James,

All's well that ends well. Glad you and your friend came through this one OK.

Here is a little defensive driving tip to reinforce what others have said above ... I always try to drive several hundred feet ahead of the car and anticipate. As I have tried to teach my kids -- now grown -- "When you are driving, try to think of the stupidest thing a driver in front of you could do -- then anticipate -- sooner or later they will do it." When they were younger, I would play a game and do "predictions" on the road. Pretty soon I was pretty good at figuring out who was likely to shift lanes without warning, who would pull out in front of you, who was unfamiliar with the area and was likely to exit abruptly, and those who when given a fork in the road will go straight into the hash marks and stop because they were frozen with indecision. That anticipation technique has given me that extra 1-2 seconds that are needed in an emergency to avoid a problem.

Personally, I can deal with agressive drivers -- they are predictable. It is the hesitant, indecisive and confused driver that scares the crap out of me.

[woaface]

That's great advice. I knew somewhere just after the intersection there was something odd about her driving...just wasn't right, tha'ts why I prepared...but predeciting the stupidest thing they can do? Wow...I will be making a game out of that:rock: What a great idea!

[THE_INTERCEPTOR]

We don't even get that in the D.C. area. They just pull right over on you without a second glance. Glad to hear you and your .


I can vouch for Haggis on that one. Talk about a bunch of people who can't drive! :fire:

[woaface]

We don't even get that in the D.C. area. They just pull right over on you without a second glance. Glad to hear you and your friend are ok. When idiots like her try something like that, I try to speed up to block them from coming over on me, if I can. I know not the smartest thing at times, but people need to learn patience and respect for their fellow drivers.
Friend? Like I have none or something:lol:

Speeding up to block them does kind of turn a light on for some people. Sometimes it's a good idea, sometimes it's not...but hopefully we make the right choice on that very quickly:up:

Speaking of which, older guy ran a stop light the other day and he knew I was up next...I let two cars go before me, it was my turn. He just keeps rolling and I jump at him (to where I knew he could get around me and I wouldn't tap him or anything) and hit my horn. He shakes his fist at me and points!

Yes, because I'm 16, I automatically have no clue how to drive.

[teamrope]

Yes, because I'm 16, I automatically have no clue how to drive.

That's OK James, we here on the board know better than that. ;)

[Haggis]

Friend? Like I have none or something:lol:

Speeding up to block them does kind of turn a light on for some people. Sometimes it's a good idea, sometimes it's not...but hopefully we make the right choice on that very quickly:up:

Speaking of which, older guy ran a stop light the other day and he knew I was up next...I let two cars go before me, it was my turn. He just keeps rolling and I jump at him (to where I knew he could get around me and I wouldn't tap him or anything) and hit my horn. He shakes his fist at me and points!

Yes, because I'm 16, I automatically have no clue how to drive.

Yes you have FRIENDS and alot of them are here on this site. Including me. ;) Sometimes the older we get the STUPIDER we get. I have been driving for over twenty years now and there are times I do really stupid things, I guess it has to do with living in a high population area. ROAD RAGE it gets to everyone now and then. The best advice I can give is be cool and let the idiots go on by, soner or later it will catch up with them and you do not want to be involved. Take care and hope to see you in a week.