scary driving moments

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My two friends and I wanted to go to Burger King. Since one of the friends came from her house, there were two cars. I went with the first friend, and we got into Burger King and parked. We were confused and wondering where she was, as she was following us and has a habit of getting lost.

Well, I pointed out a white car that was at the green light, waiting to turn left to get onto the side road that leads to BK. There were two lanes of oncoming traffic on the side road – one that was giving BK traffic space to get in, and another for people turning right at the stoplight. We watched that car turn into the side road, and then turn right into gas station instead of left towards us. Another white car was behind it, and it was turning left to get into BK. It hesitated for a minute, then started to turn left. Just as it, a car (that was turning right at the stoplight) smashed into the passenger side. We started screaming, and rushed out of the SUV to see if she was OK. Turns out it actually wasn’t her; she was behind that car. But it was scary thinking that your friend just got into a car accident and it happened in front of your eyes. Everyone involved was OK; they got out shortly there after. Lo and behold, our friend arrives, a few cars behind the accident, and parks into a neighboring hotel lot.

We sat in BK shaking for over a half hour, just glad we’re all OK. After the friend leaves, we get back in the car. At a 3way stop, we’re behind a semi coming up to a light as my friend’s cell rings. The semi was covering the two top lights, and my friend didn’t realize in time that the side light was yellow. So she hits the talk button, says hi right as the light turns red (no way for us to stop at this point) and says “oh f…” to the caller (who turned out to be another friend, who has NEVER heard my friend swear, although she does. The caller doesn’t like people swearing.)
In reptrospective, I’m very glad the intersection was a 3way and not a 4way. The poor driver – it was her first blown light.

Cell phones are evil.

Long night…just glad we’re all alive.

/Shadez

2

Sorry to say this but your friend was an idiot for using the cell phone at all in the car.

(I think you just described a situation where your friend used a mobile phone while driving - If I misunderstood I apologise)

3

Mine:

It was abround 9 Am, I am driving down a narrow country road with a lot of hills. I am going the slightly under the speed limit (@ 45 MPH), there is snow on the road - the after the snowplow snow, where it leaves a few inches and is slightly slick. I come over the top of a hill, and there is a farm truck and wagon out in the middle of the road, right in front of me.

I tap my brakes, but I know I won’t be able to stop in time. The going is too slippery.

On my right is a steep drop down into a ravine full of trees, a shorter drop on my left - but if I veer to the left I will smash into the farm truck.

I was quite panicked, but the driver saw me in time and pulled off the road at the last second. Whew.

4

You say that like it’s supposed to become routine after a while. It’s not. And if there’s a semi in front of you, let it drive away and don’t enter the intersection until you can see the traffic light. You’re learning this the easy way.

My moment also involved a semi. I used to work in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where I-81 and I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) meet. And even though those two highways cross one another, there’s no direct interchange. You have to get off one highway, then take about a mile of four-lane road to get on the other. Local rumor was that the guy who owned the huge truck-stop on that mile made seven figures per year, and made enough campaign contributions to the local politicos to make sure all that traffic had to pass by his business. Not only that, the regulations for truckers specify that the most they can drive is ten yours per day, and Carlisle is within a ten-hour drive of more of the U.S. population than any other place; so every big trucking company has a huge operation there. That one mile of road has so many heavy trucks that they repaved it while I was there, with fourteen-inch thick concrete. All of which means that there are lots of big trucks there. Seriously, if you’re scared of big trucks, you’ll run screaming from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

New Year’s Eve, a few years ago; I was just leaving work in my MG, which is not a big car. I was heading down that one-mile stretch, and there are lots of trucks around as usual. I’m coming to a stoplight, and it turns yellow. I might have been able to make it, but I’m a cautious driver, so I get on the brakes. I hear something behind me. I look in the rearview mirror, and I see headlights that are higher than the roof of my car. And the lights are shaking up and down, which means his wheels are locked up and he’s skidding. So I let off the brakes a bit. At this point I’m not too worried about going into the intersection, because whatever happens there can’t be as bad as what will happen if I stop. I keep one eye on the mirror, and I use the brakes to stay just in front of the truck. By the time this all grinds to a halt, the truck is parked right at the stop line for the intersection. I’m across the line, of course, but I think the cross traffic saw us coming and waited so no one hit me from the sides. There was enough room for cars to get by in front of me, so I waited for the light to turn green and drove home.

And through the whole thing, I never really did get scared. I was paying too much attention. My instinct for driving took over and I just got really focused on what was going on. And it worked, too; if I’d panicked, I’d have been a hood ornament. I’ve always kind of wondered about the guy driving that truck, though. He shouldn’t have been so close behind me that he couldn’t stop, of course, but I don’t know if he was scared or just really pissed at me. And it didn’t seem important enough to ask about at the time.

5

You sure about that? I work for an LTL carrier, and I’m almost positive it’s 12 hours.

I do feel your pain, though. I’m originally from a little town near Harrisburg, so I know what you’re talking about.

6

I thought I’d heard it was ten hours, but I might be wrong. Or they could have changed it since then. Regardless, Carlisle is ground zero for trucks.

I lived in Harrisburg. Not a bad place, but I swear they rolled up the sidewalks at 5:00.

7

I told my scariest driving moment here, when I was a mere newbie with attrocious English. :slight_smile:

Had a few minor accidents since then, but nothing that scared the pants off me like that episode. Well, there was this time when my car left a hairpin turn in the North-Italian Alps, sliding over all four wheels. My then-girlfriend was screaming her lungs out, but I was completely calm, not unlike Robot Arm in his story.

I was driving in a long line of traffic towards the Austrian border when it happened. Due to -in hindsight- the hard rubber eco-tyres my car had, grip was not sufficient and I lost it whilst doing maybe 25 km/h. It slid over all four wheels, towards the outside of the bend. Oncoming traffic stopped in time, so I was heading straight for the sloping meadow that didn’t end for another 800 meters. It would not have been a life-and-death situation, unless the car had started to roll.

Fortunately, I burried the nose of the car half in and half over the snow/ice wall that lines the road - a result of constant snowplowing. I had missed a light post by about 10 centimeters.

After a bit of digging (the front wheels were dangling in the air), I could reverse the car out of its unnatural position, and we were free to go. Apart from a few scratches to the oil carter, the car wasn’t damaged at all.

First thing I did upon arrival home, was buying four brand spanking new Toyo all-season tyres, the kind with a soft rubber compound that’ll wear faster, but WILL provide tons of grip.

8

I was driving north on 15-501 in NC, a two lane hilly road, one night headed back to college. I was headed up a slight hill when I saw two sets of headlights coming over the hilltop toward me. Recall this is a two lane road. Some idiot (probably someone who lived in Miami) was passing over the crest of a blind hill. I ended up skidding into some nice lady’s front lawn (thank Gawd she did not have a drainage ditch) and downshifting, and I kept going. I knew if I stopped I would get the shakes and not be able to move, and at that moment did not want to be found in that front yard.

But now I live in Miami and see this shit every day. Ho-hum.

9

The scariest moment for me happened when I was in college and had only been licenced a year or so (I grew up in NYC and didn’t get my ldriver’s licence till I was 19).

So, I was heading down to Williamsburg, VA on I-95. I had driven the first leg with my mom and I had dropped her off to visit friends in Washington, D.C. I merged onto the beltway sucessfully and was feeling mighty proud of myself. I was (and still am) a rather cautious driver and was just clocking along in the right lane. For those not familiar with I-95 in that area, it is always busy, and always either moving fast or locked up. There also tends to be a large differential between lane speeds, that makes it difficult for the wussy to change lanes very often (right lane is going 55, middle lane is going 70, and left lane is going 85).

So, I was driving along in the right lane when this large white van started to merge off a very short entrance ramp. An expansion van – the kind with no windows all around, you know? I didn’t have enough space to get ahead of him and there were cars behind me following closely, and fast-moving traffic on my left. The van clearly didn’t see me, because he… merged onto me. Just sorta pushed his way onto where I was. I didn’t have anywhere to go but between lanes because I would have caused a large accident by hitting the brakes. I drove between lanes for maybe 100-200 feet when the guy to my left saw what was happening and basically let me in.

It was really scary and ever since then I have avoid driving anywhere near an entrance ramp when at all possible.

10

Oh, also, last year I was driving down I-80 very late at night and A guy came driving the WRONG WAY down the highway. I-80 is a divided 6-lane toll highway – how’d he manage that? Scared the crap out of me and my friend. Good thing it was 3 am, totally empty road. We were both like, “did you SEE that!?”

11

I was heading for a job interview on a 4 lane in the city, and this guy in a BMW is passing by me in the left lane. A Ford Granada (yeah, this happened a while ago) coming the other direction, hit the little concrete divider in the middle of the road, jumped it, and plowed headfirst into the Beemer. I locked it down, as the Granada spun by the front of my car, barely missing it…I jumped out of my car, and ran to the Granada to see if the driver was OK, and she was, but terribly and understandably shaken. After seeing she seemed OK, I ran over to the BMW, which was demolished, and I’ll never forget what I saw. Obviously, this guy wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and his face was not designed to be propelled into a windshield. His lawyer called me a few months later to testify in court, and he told me the guy was gonna be permanently forked.

I wear my belt religiously these days 'cos of seeing that.

12

This happened at least five years ago, probably more. On a journey I used to do regularly, there’s a long stretch of straight road which is initially a three-lane road (one each way and a passing lane), then turns into a two lane road with a brick wall on one side. It’s on a slight incline so you can see all the way along.

I’d been caught behind a heavy articluated lorry doing 30 (on a 60mph road) for several miles, and pulled out into the passing lane to overtake him. When I was halfway past in the passing lane, he must have seen me in his mirror and speeded up to freeze me out. I speeded up slightly (there are cameras along that stretch) because I could see a queue behind him and couldn’t drop back. Allegedly I still had plenty of space and right of way in the passing lane when I saw the other car coming up the road at 60 towards me in my lane, trying dodge the queue of traffic on the other side.

I’ll admit I froze, because there wasn’t anywhere for me to go on the road. The lorry wasn’t slowing to let me in, and I didn’t have time to drop back to get behind him. I stamped on the accelerator, speeded quite considerably, and overtook the lorry, admittedly cutting him up to get out of the way of the other car. (I probably wouldn’t have cut him up if he hadn’t been speeding up while I tried to get back in the left lane. God knows what he was thinking, since he could see what was going on as well as I could. )

Not an example of good driving by anyone involved, but at least no one got hurt.

13

My scary driving moment has most beat.

I had only been driving for, oh…maybe four months. But I had my own car, felt pretty comfortable, had the license and registration and all that hoopla. A friend and I were driving to a coffee shop; as we came to the red light before that next block where the shop was, we noticed a roller blader off to my right on the sidewalk. Didn’t think anything of it.

The light turned green and we went through the intersection at the same moment that the roller blader was crossing on his crosswalk signal. All’s still fine and dandy, until as I’m turning into my parking space on the right, the roller blader jumps off the sidewalk, trips, and SLIDES UNDER MY CAR.

thump thump

My friend and I both stared at each other in absolute, speechless horror. I had just run over someone. Visions of me running over his head, his torso, his legs were flashing through my head. I will never forget the song that was playing on the radio: “Icicle” by Tori Amos. I was sure I had killed him.

Imagine my surprise when Mr. Rollerblader gets to his feet, SMILING, waves and yells “It’s alright! I’m okay!” and skates away as if nothing had ever happened.

I had run over his skates.

I spent the next two hours in front of the coffee shop, chain smoking with shaking hands and thinking of how very different my life could have turned out just then.

14

Way back when, I was heading down the freeway on my way to school. It was a beautiful Southern California day so I had all the windows down and the radio up loud so I could hear it over the wind. There I was in my beloved VW squareback going about 70mph (back when that was legal) when I notice a slight vibration in the steering wheel along with a change in the pitch of the wind screaming in through the windows. I decide to turn up the radio so I can hear it over the wail of the wind.

Pretty quickly the vibration in the steering becomes more pronounced along with the whooshing from the wind. So I start to get a clue that there is something wrong with the car. I think “I’m getting a flat!” I’ll slow down and take the next exit. So I get into the slow lane and start braking. By now the steering wheel is jerking about wildly, the car is shaking and I was forced to turn the radio off. I decide that the tire must already be flat and that I should stop on the side of the freeway (forgoing the offramp option). So I pump my brakes and get it down to about 45mph and ease onto the breakdown lane (apron) when suddenly there is a loud bang followed by blissful silence and a smooth ride. I think (briefly) that everything is ok.

A second or so later my left rear wheel bounces past me, heading up the freeway. Before I can fully fathom the implications of this sight, the back end of the car falls to the pavement as I skid down the apron sending up a roostertail of sparks. I came to rest safely and watched in horror as the wheel blithely continued down the freeway, bouncing higher and higher, crossing the two lanes heading west, careening across a wide dirt center median, and then crossing the two lanes of oncoming traffic. Mercifully, the oncoming traffic saw it coming and everyone slowed down and allowed the wayward wheel to cross safely in front of them. Whereupon the wheel hit the far fence, popped high up in the air and came to a rest in a cloud of dust.

I thought “I’ll put on the spare!” But when I went to mount it I realized the all the lugnuts were still under the hubcap on the wayward wheel. I started to shake while I waited for the towtruck.

15

2 weeks ago, I was in Florida, driving from Pensacola to Tallahassee in a rental car. It was a POS, and I wasnt really familiar with all of it’s quirks. The steering wheel started doing a weird vibrating thing, so I figured I should pull over and let the little Geo rest. I put my blinker on, checked my mirror, and pulled off to the side of the road. The 18 wheeler, formerly in the left lane, decided at that moment to switch into my lane. I guess he didnt see my blinker. When he realized I was stopping, he slammed on his brakes, skidded across the left lane, into the median, and kept going. I was so scared he was going to roll. He kept going, pulled into the emergncy lane, and stopped to check his truck out. I made sure he was okay (he was), and went on my way, shaking the rest of the way to Tallahassee. I would’ve felt so horrible if he’d flipped…

16

I worked for a company that did a fair amount of 18 wheeler trucking. Best story I heard was thus: One of our drivers was making an early morning delivery to one of our warehouses. He slowed down to stop at a traffic light, looked left, and saw one of his tires bounding down the median strip past him. Said tire bounded down the median until it chanced to smack into a state trooper parked in the median a good ways down the road. The driver was cited, but it was our mechanic who really caught hell. the story lives in infamy…