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Once when driving down a three-lane highway. I was in the center lane doing 65, and an SUV came up from behind in the left lane. They were going a little faster than me. Just as the other vehicle was kitty-corner to mine, a medium-sized dog jumped out the rear window on the opposite side. If it had jumped out on my side, it would have gone right through my windshield. I had my driver's side window rolled down and I'll never forget the sound of that poor dog hitting the pavement as long as I live.
The other was at a freeway conjunction. The left and center lanes merged from one freeway to another, and the right lane was a forced turn into an off ramp to a local street. I was in the center lane picking up speed to merge, there was a car on the left, and an idiot in a convertible was in the right lane about 60 feet ahead going about 20 MPH slower than everyone else. At the last second the idiot decides he doesn't want to take the off ramp and scoots over halfway into my lane and half on the shoulder without looking to see if the lane was occupied and with absolutely no warning. At that point he was maybe two car lengths from me. Even with slamming on the brakes I probably came within 6" of hitting him.
Yes. I was driving to work back in January (I work nights) and was speeding down the highway when I suddenly saw a deer in the road about 50 feet from me and swerved hard. Luckily, the lane next to me was empty. Admittedly, I hadn't looked since I had swerved out of reflex. Fortunately, I was able to recover and the deer dashed across the highway unharmed. The incident scared the heck out of me and I was kind of out of it at work that night. There is no doubt that if I had hit the deer, another car, or even both that I would likely have been killed in the crash.
First time was following my boss (in HIS car) to a customer on an icy road and having the car "pogo" because of bad shocks. The car fishtailed back and forth and I put in a ditch, where it caught the dirt and rolled onto it's top then gently slid to a stop.
The second time was riding late at night with my buddy who was speeding on a curvy road where he spun out and put the passenger side quarter (2 feet from where I sat) into the end of a guardrail. The car flipped over onto it's top then rested on the passenger side in some trees.
It took about 10 minutes for me to wiggle out of the car. My right elbow went through the doorglass and I occasionally picked glass out of it for the next 10 years 'til it was all gone.
Years later when I was driving an 18 wheeler, I was up in some mountains late at night and while rounding a corner I felt the truck start to jackknife. I'd hit some black ice. I was driving down a slight grade so I had the momentum pushing me downhill. I luckily was able to keep it straight enough to slow it down, but I crossed the fog lines on both sides of the narrow 2 lane road at least twice. I was shaking like a leaf for the next hour.
Another big rig episode.
I was in Northern California in the Siskiyou Mountains, which are pretty steep and windy. These trucks have engine brakes that actually use the engines compression to slow the truck down to assist in braking so you can go downhill fast without burning the brake lining in the brakes on the axles. Mine had stopped working earlier on the trip, so i was flying by the seat of my pants.
I had a load of canned foods, VERY heavy freight - I'd guess the gross weight was 78,000 - 80,000 lbs. And I got the brakes hot on the way down the long northbound I-5 grade into Ashland, Or.
I tried to keep the truck under 35 mph because I knew my equipment was faulty, but eventually it got away from me and soon the brakes were pouring smoke off the drums and there was weak braking. I found a stretch of flatter grade and a wide spot on the shoulder to get onto and just mashed the pedal as hard as I could, luckily I got the truck stopped. Smoke poured from the brakes and passers-by thought the truck was on fire. It was another 5 miles to the bottom of the hill, there's no way I would have made it to the bottom.
After the brakes cooled and I went down the rest of the way, I didn't go any faster than 10 mph and I was about as tense as a guy could be and still drive. It was a 10 speed transmission, but I didn't even take it out of 3rd gear.
THAT was without question the most scared I've ever been in my life, PERIOD.
I used to waitress at night and drive home around 2-3 AM. One night a drunk driver caused an accident on 95 and my car flipped over and I was ejected 50 ft. A few Good Samaritans stopped, blocked traffic, and tried to help the bleeding ( he said I looked like Carrie). It was a Sunday night. I woke up Thursday. I had been in extremely critical condition. I was in a coma, with a collapsed lung, severe liver laceration, skull fracture that was visible because my face was literally peeled off (needed nearly 70 stitches to put it back together. My chest was ripped open also, and needed multiple flaps to be put back. During the coma I was also fighting severe fevers of 103/104 and I had road rash over half my body that needed debridement a few times. I had transfusions also.
The road rash was the worst part. I had dressings that needed to be changed every 12 hours and it took about 3 hours to do. When they peeled the gauze off it felt like my skin was peeling off even with the heavy painkillers I was in tears. Overall I spent two months in hospitals and when I came home I still needed a nurse and PT to come to the house. I have scars and grafts all over my body still along with black marks (road "tattoos" from hitting the asphalt so hard) and gravel imbedded in my skin. I even found pieces of glass that pushed out of my skin.
My spine was also messed up and I still deal with that. I have nodules on my vertebrae that push on my nerves. They do a procedure every few months to burn the nerves but it has to be redone because the grow back. But I'm alive. By the grace of God, I'm alive.
Long boring straight ride up 35 from Austin Tx to Dallas at night. Only a handful of cars for miles.. I was very very tired. The only other car nearby in the same direction was a van.
Somehow, I got fixated on a full size van's rear tail-lights and followed behind it for miles. My mind had phased out during that time.. I have no idea how long I was in that state. The driver of the van decided to pull over to the side lane for what I assume was a break. I followed him apparently. By the time I snapped out of it, I was staring right at two bright red brake lights of a stopped van on the shoulder and I was still moving at a good rate. Swerved into the grass and missed him by a few inches.
I scared the crap out of the other driver…. It took a good half hour to calm down and pull it together before I was ready to continue on…. I drove to the next station and called it a night. Slept in my Jeep till the morning and missed my first day back as an intern for that semester. not a fun trip.
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