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What are some of the close calls you've had while a driving a car, experiences that can even leave you almost shivering with fear to this day, even if it happened years ago? Your life was perhaps saved by luck, or you stopped daydreaming or being distracted by something just at the right minute or second?
Myself, back in the late 60's, I was heading to Wisconsin with some friends, driving on a rural paved road without a shoulder, late at night, and at some high speed I came across an older black car parked/abandoned in the middle of the lane (back then there were no 4-way flashers). Laughing, talking with my friends at the time, listening to the radio, it's a miracle I was able to spot this vehicle at the last second and veer to the left. If another car had been coming in the opposite direction, and with a steep ravine to the right as my other choice, I believe it would have been curtains!
I realize, as well, even a daily commute to and from work can be wrought with close calls.
Ok, how to describe this...? Well, a couple of years ago I was driving a two lane road with my wife and young son in the car headed south. Another car, heading north, was waiting to turn left and it had a few cars behind it, stopped. As I approached the intersection, a northbound SUV came out into my lane (she was coming up on the stopped cars, so she came out into my lane to avoid slamming into the cars in front of her). For a split second, all I saw in front of me was this SUV. I swerved right to avoid a head on with the SUV. Luckily she continued straight in my lane as I went past. The road was being widened to 4 lanes in this section and I had a little extra space of packed dirt to the right just after the intersection. As I swerved left, back into my lane, I heard "Wham! Wham!". The cars that were following the SUV slammed into the stopped cars behind the one that was waiting to turn. I remember our Toyota Matrix being pelted by pieces of rubber, metal...you name it. We pulled over to the right, stopped, turned to look at the large accident and called 911. We made it through unscathed as did the SUV that came out into our lane.
On a logging road in early spring I had the road bed give out, dropped a foot or so, urging my 1000 gal. fire engine to topple down a 100% slope clear cut. My right foot instinctively mashed the throttle and I made it through. I was picking IH naugahyde out of my behind for a bit after.
1. Back in 1994 I took a road trip to Oregon with two of my friends. On the way back I was extremely tired. I was driving on the US 93 in Arizona which has two lanes going each direction, with about 30 feet of dirt separating them. It looks like this...
I guess I feel asleep because the next thing I noticed was the car was spinning around. I wound up spinning past a full size truck on the opposite side of the road. He slammed on his brakes to avoid me. We wound slamming into a fence on the other side of the road. Luckily, no one was hurt and the my car was only slightly damaged. Needless to say, this woke me up, and I drove back to Phoenix with no further problems.
2. This was really scary. Back in 1993 I was working at a car dealership as an errand runner. They gave me a Geo Metro to drive around in all day. I was stopped behind a bus when a man approached me from behind at a high rate of speed, probably around 60mph. He was driving a full size Chevy van. I saw my my life flash before my eyes, and was preparing to die. At the last second, he swerved around me. My heart was beating so fast after that, that I had to pull off the road for a few minutes.
Back in '68 I was stationed in upstate NY and was returning to base after watching NFL and playing chess at a friend's house. I had lost the last chess game to him despite having an advantage and I was replaying the game in my head-yeah, I'm anal retentive!
I was so engrossed in the replay that I drove right through a red light and onto a heavily travelled road. Fortunately no one was coming, light traffic at 4:00 PM Sunday. Any other time of the week I'd have likely been smashed by an 18 wheeler.
I have had a few shockers but the one that really sticks out was while driving an International box truck (fully loaded 24' box)...
It was a warm sunny July afternoon and I was on the expressway doing about 60, traffic around me was fairly light and everyone was doing about 65. About 200 yards or so up ahead I noticed a wall of congested traffic in all three lanes... they had all slammed on their brakes for an accident that was around the bend. I just had visions of death and destruction and immediatley stomped the brake pedal, they were hydraulic... for those who have driven trucks you know when loaded up the brakes (especially hydraulic) don't do nearly as much as you need them to in a panic. Anyway the rear duallys instantly locked up, the truck began to serpentine a bit and I was just praying I would stop in time... it did, about 30 ft from the stopped traffic. I certainly would have killed people if something had gone wrong. I also miraculously stayed in my lane as the truck skidded to a halt.
I was 19 or 20 at the time but I had lived almost every summer (since I had my license) in the driver seat of those trucks. I am just so thankful that everything turned out the way it did.
Was working for a paint company and making a delivery to a work site with a fully loaded van. Dozed off, drifted to the right and hit the rumble strips which woke me. Over compensated and started to fish tail and then slid. Had the load shifted I would have rolled the van over.
Les than an hour ago, I was walking home from the library, taking a short cut through a gas station, and a driver looking for a free pump headed straight for me and I had to leap out of the way.
I was driving from Illinois to Wisconsin one evening, sometime in 2001 or 2002. It was 8pm or so, and I had just crossed the state line on I-94, driving north in the center lane. In the southbound traffic lanes, about a mile away (separated by a full emergency lane on the left, as full as as standard barrier wall) I saw some lights bounce as if the vehicle the lights were mounted on, had hit the wall. As it turned out, the vehicle was a semi trailer--a tank truck to be specific--and it had indeed contacted the wall as it traveled south. As I watched, the truck climbed the wall, then toppled as a unit, into the northbound lanes, swinging out across the lanes of traffic, throwing a shower of sparks everywhere.
Keep in mind I had been traveling around 80mph in the center lane as the tank truck traveling the opposite direction, tipped over the center wall and landed on its side, probably still traveling around 50-60mph when it did so.
I slammed on the brakes causing a full ABS brake activation, moving over to the right of the highway as the capsized tractor-trailer slid and sparked past, on its side. The truck swung out across the lanes of traffic as it slid. I remember it sparking past me with a horrible grinding/screeching noise. Another car that had been traveling a few hundred feet behind me, followed me. I stopped briefly, then got the hell out of there, not wanting to find out if the truck was carrying milk or gasoline. The mess caused a three hour traffic delay for Chicago-Milwaukee traffic, and apparently it also caused several more gapers accidents. Fortunately I was the last car to get past the mess. Nobody was injured, which was good. I could have easily been flattened if I wasn't paying attention.
Coinicidentally on the same section of I-94, at a different time and date, I had another close one. It was winter, about 30 degrees, and at one point on the freeway, as if the pavement had been painted, the pavement darkened. It was dry before, and (I thought) wet the next second. Except, it was 30 degrees outside. I thought to test the pavement a bit, so I touched the brakes and was met with a cacophony of ABS action. Not good; it was black ice. As I watched, the freeway turned into an automotive ballet. Cars spiraled in every imaginable direction, crashing into each other, the barrier wall, or just sailing off the highway altogether. It was truly an amazing sight, and I happened to have a little digital camera in my car. I captured several accidents in action as I crept along behind some other vehicles that had escaped crashes, at approximately 15mph. Again, there were no serious injuries, but I counted some 40+ vehicles in collisions or off-the-road situations.
I was driving into Kansas City one night, maybe 2 or 3 am, on the freeway. The shoulder was closed for construction, and the entry ramps had no acceleration lane, had to go straight into the right traffic lane. There was very little traffic, so I drove in the left lane, to avoid any surprises. Suddenly, a car appeared on my right, and literally within a second or two, shot across to the left, at right angles, straight across in front of me. I had a full side view of a little brown subcompact. It might have been some smart aleck trying to cut me off for driving in the left lane, and lost control. Had to be going at least 90 to get around me that fast. It must have hit the retaining wall on the left side of the freeway lanes, because the night was lit up in what seemed to be a shower of sparks. I have no idea what happened, I couldn't go back, and my mirror provided me no clues.
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