Scary, Scary, "Oh God I'm gonna die" moments on the road.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Reading another thread reminded me of the one time I thought I was about to die on the road and actually had time to be conscious of the prospect. I was heading north on my way to Coffs Harbour and was just south of Buladelah. I was sitting on about 65 mph coming up behind a truck. In the rear vision mirror I could see some one in a station wagon going faster than me and he would soon be on my rear. It didn’t matter though because soon there would be an overtaking lane on our side of the highway (I know the road well) and I would pass the truck and the station wagon would follow and pass me when I pulled in to the slow lane in front of the truck.

And so we proceeded. When I was alongside the truck with the station wagon behind me accelerating, some idiot coming the other way pulled out on to our side of the highway to overtake a line of cars. It took me some time to realise that this idiot thought the extra lane was his I was trapped outside the truck doing 65 with someone about 3 feet from my back bumper.

And I knew that when I slammed on my brakes the guy behind me, who couldn’t see what was happening, would slam into my rear and push me into the truck or the oncoming traffic.

But when I stood on the brake pedal and flicked over behind the truck, only feet before the idiot passed by, the guy behind me just went with me. He stayed a few feet off my rear followed me into the slow lane and then zipped back out and passed me and the truck.

I pulled off the road for an hour or so at Buladelah to compose myself and have always thought that if it were not for that mysterious Victorian driver my whole family could have died.

2

I was driving down a narrow two lane road in an Alfa Romeo spider. I passed a large truck going very slowly and went on my way. About two miles up the road I was going around a very long curve. A Chevy Suburban was about half in my lane. I had to go slightly off road. This caused the car to spin out and stall. Fortunately there was nobody directly behind me. I had to crank the car up and get going however to avoid getting creamed by the semi coming up behind me. I was no longer able to enjoy driving that car and eventually sold it.

3

2 incidents involving a Ford Pinto :eek: (no, not the explodey version of the Pinto, thank goodness :stuck_out_tongue: )

The first was when I was when I was taking a 1-lane ramp from one freeway to another. Ahead of me was a landscaping truck, which appeared to be moving at the same speed I was. I didn’t see any brake lights. In some split second, I realize he is not moving the same speed as me, in fact, he is going very slow/stopped (why couldn’t I notice that before? To this day I still don’t understand :confused: ). I was driving a Ford Pinto, which was fairly heavy for a car of its size compared to cars these days. The car also had balding tires and no ABS system, so when I hit the brakes the car skidded :eek: for what seemed like 1000 feet, I saw the truck ahead of me looming up and thought, “I’m not gonna stop in time” so I started to gently turn onto the shoulder. Sure enough, not only did I shoot past him, but started to lose control of the car and went hurtling towards the side wall of the highway I just BARELY tapped the wall with the corner of my bumper when I finally came to a stop :eek:

The second was when I was driving down this hill. Since it was a long downhill drive, I thought to shift down to second (the car was an automatic) to help slow the car down and not burden the crappy brakes. Right when I grabbed the gear selector and pressed the little button down, I hit a pothole. This caused my arm to jerk the gear selector into REVERSE :eek: which caused the car to make this deafening sound, and suddenly behave as if I was driving on ice. The car spun about 90 degrees to the left, and sent the car into the landscaped median, helping to stop the car. When I came to my senses, there was no damage (aside from some smooshed bushes) and the cars behind me were remarkably able to stop in time and patiently waited for me to take a few breaths, pull out of the median, and continue on my way (whew!)

4

So back in the day, my old Volvo was getting some work done. I was driving my buddies 74 Civic. You know one of the real small ones.
Anyway I am driving down the Hollywood freeway 60 miles per hours and cars all about ]…[ this far apart. Anyway no worries, no problems. Then the pickup in front of me jams on his brakes. Still no problem, the Honda can out stop a truck. The he dives one lane to the right. About 100 yards up I see the grille of a full sized Ford (LTD? Crown Vic?) My first thought is that the driver had spun the car, and how I could stop and help get him straightened out. Then all of a sudden I realized something.Holy shit he is coming at me! This brain dead mother fucker was driving the wrong way on the freeway! At this point we were only about 30 feet apart, I flicked a quick look over my shoulder, and turned the wheel to make a lane change. He went by so close I swear I could have wiped the dirt off the side of his car with my finger. I stopped and callled the cops from a call box. The I circled around until I found where the Hiway patrol had stopped him. I pulled over and asked to speak with the patrolman. He asked what I wanted and I replied that this idiot had almost killed me. he asked if I would be willing to testify. Damn straight, just tell me where and when. I heard later that the driver had his license pulled, and he had to sell his car, due to being too old to drive.
The rest of the day, all of my customers kept asking me why I was so pale.

5

Last night, in fact.

I was staying with my Mom a few days because she was having surgery yesterday. (All’s well now.) I didn’t sleep well the night before the surgery, and got up early to take Mom in to the hospital. By the time we got back to Mom’s house last night, I was wiped out. Between stress and lack of sleep, I was almost in the la-la zone. I HAD to get home last night - for one thing, Mom is short on bed space now that my siblings are there; for another, I have a family of my own that needs me.

Driving the forty miles home, I was getting very dozy and distracted. VERY foolish of me to drive at all, but you know how stupid stuff always seems to make sense when you’re not thinking clearly?? I turned the music up loud, rolled down my windows, and paid very close attention to my speed and position on the road. Pinched myself a few times, too. Twice I almost pulled over and called my husband to come get me, but the logistics of this in my sleep-deprived brain just eluded me completely.

When I finally got home last night I was in tears of relief. And you’ll all be glad to know that the experience frightened me sufficiently enough that I will NEVER drive that tired again.

6

I was driving westward in the left lane of a four-lane divided highway at 70mph when the guy beside me changed lanes without looking. I swerved left to keep from hitting him, and lost traction. Did a perfect 180 across the median and ended up on the left shoulder of the eastbound side, as if I’d pulled over and parked there. Restarted the car (it died for some reason halfway across, probably when I started going backward) and drove away. No damage to me or the car. The spin couldn’t have taken more than a second or two, but it felt like minutes.

If I hadn’t spun, I would’ve gone straight across and hit a car or a tree. Half a mile further down, the median is a 30-degree slope, so I probably would’ve rolled over.

7

I’m driving westbound on a state highway in dense fog. Because of the fog, I was driving about 5-8 miles per hour under the speed limit, so I could have time to stop or slow down if necessary. Well, I had Mr. Impatient behind me, who decided to pass me, despite the fact you couldn’t see 100 feet in front of you. Needless to say, a car came from the other direction, forcing Mr. Impatient to drive off the side of the road of the EASTBOUND lane. I was praying that the driver coming east wouldn’t react TOO early, and swerve into my lane. Fortunately, he didn’t, and I got to live to see the next day.

8

So I was on the road to New Orleans from Biloxi, MS. There was a tanker truck ahead of me. The tanker bore no labels, so I have no idea what he was carrying. He begins to fishtail. Oh, fuck. I change one lane left and hope to God he doesn’t have any asplodey chemicals in that big tank of his. Fortunately, he recovered.

Fun fact: He didn’t bother to get off his cell phone.

9

I was driving to Calgary in a 1971 Datsun 240-Z. Great car. It was cold, but the roads were dry and clear. I was doing maybe 70mph, when I noticed that it looked a little foggy up ahead. But it wasn’t fog - it was a freak snowstorm. The second I hit it, the car went out of control (there was about a foot of snow on the road). So here I am, going 70 mph, slowly twisting and turning on the road, with the steering being completely ineffective. And coming the other way was a tractor-trailer unit.

The car was crossing back and forth into both lanes (it was only a 2-lane highway), and eventually cut right in front of the semi, and hit the snow-filled ditch hard. Hard enough to blow one of my fiberglass quarter panels off the car, but my passenger and I were unhurt.

I cross the semi’s path with maybe a second or two to spare. If he had hit my 240, he would have left a greasy stain on the road and said, “What was that noise?”

I got the car towed out of the ditch, bungeed my quarter panel back on (it failed at the attach points, and was otherwise undamaged), and continued to Calgary. A mile up the road the snow vanished, and it was clear and dry again. Very strange.

10

Well, this wasn’t quite a “Oh God, I’m going to die” moment, but I suppose it could have been if things were slightly different. I was on I-95 doing the whole stop-and-go thing due to an accident in the middle lane. After passing it, everyone started speeding back up again, myself included. When I got back up to 60 I spotted a second car crash in the right lane, the one I was in. I slowed down and signalled to change lanes, but the car on my left wasn’t leaving much room to pass (the front was about even with my back bumper, I guess) and since my car doesn’t accelerate quickly, I didn’t want to try to speed up and pass, in case he or she persisted in ignoring me and continued accelerating. But there wasn’t any room behind that car either and I was almost on top of the wreck in my lane by that time, so I had to swerve around it, darting into the spot in front of the car that wouldn’t slow down to let me pass. I’m not sure if I did the right thing, maybe I should have slown down until someone let me in? But there were a lot of cars behind me eagar to speed up and I didn’t have a lot of time to think anyway. I still don’t know why that car didn’t slow down and give me an opening. What did the driver think I was going to do about the crashed car in my lane? Plow right into it? There wasn’t even a right shoulder for it to move to.

11

Slown? Uh, that should be slowed. While I’m at it, it’s spelled eager. Sigh. Good going, self.

12

pats Arien

One time, I was cycling with my family on a warm summer day, sans helmet or kneepads (not a mistake I made again, as you’ll see…)

We have a long, sloping hill near our house, fairly steep–a nice, quiet, shady street just off the main avenue. Dad and my brother turned onto the hill, coasted down, and zoomed off ahead.

I released my brakes, braced myself with one foot against the ground, grinning like a maniac, then pushed off. I was hurtling towards the bottom of the hill, the wind was blowing in my face, my wheels were flying–when a car pulled out of the driveway, onto the street, at the very end.

Instant flash of panic and I swear, if I’d braked a second later, the car and I would have crashed.

As it was, I skidded wildly to a stop just millimeters away, the bike toppling to the ground and throwing me to one side. The woman driving the car and her mother immediately jumped out, white as death; a passing man with a briefcase stared in disbelief and asked if I was all right.

Shaken but not hurt–palms bleeding, knees scraped, a ringing sound in my head–I nodded, trembling, and got slowly back onto the bike, pedalling away with shivers in every limb.

That, and the time we were driving during a blizzard, and the flash lightning on the highway… but those are other stories.

13

I was crossing an intersection near the Nashville International, at about 6AM.

I had the green light, & entered the intersection.
Guy runs the light, comes within 2 feet of broadsiding me, swerves in & out & around at least 2 cars, & keeps going, all at about 75 mph in a 45 zone.

In the dark.

With no lights on.

Cold sweat pooling in my sneakers, kids.

14

I was in the passenger seat of an early 70’s Datsun pickup when we were broadsided by a 69 Cadillac. The point of impact was just behind the passenger door. We spun across 5 lanes of traffic and hit a fire hydrant in the driver’s door. I didn’t know the guy very well, I had just bought a car from him and he was taking me back to pick up my pickup. This happened on the day after Christmas 1986. My only injuries was a broken tooth and an extremely sore body for the next week. The driver suffered a broken right leg (wrapped it around the shifter), broken skull, severe concussion, 5 broken ribs, various internal injuries, and couple nasty cuts. He spent 17 days in ICU and a total of 3 months in the hospital. I saw him 9 months after the accident in court and he had no idea who I was.

The impact bent the truck into about a 30 degree angle. The right side frame rail was touching the left side. The emergency brake cable is the only thing that kept the rear end from being completely detached from the truck. The passenger door was flung open and folded back 180 degrees from it’s closed postion. If I wouldn’t have had the seat belt on, I would have been thrown from the truck.

If the Caddy had hit us a split second earlier, there is no doubt I would have be killed. I was in a couple spetacular crashes when I drove race cars but I don’t think any of them could be considered life threatening.

15

I was driving home from work one day, in the right-most lane of 3 or 4. Traffic was going at a good clip, about 65 - 75MPH. A little ahead of me and to my left was a pickup truck with a number of ladders attached to it. Well, the ladders must not have been fastened on very well, because suddenly the entire road was filled with the flying metal deathsticks and swerving cars.

The car to my immediate left hit one of the ladders dead on, with a bit of a thumpy-crunchy noise. I was only vaguely aware of it, as I was busy swerving wildly trying to avoid the carnage.

I somehow managed to avoid all the ladders and the cars. I suppose I should’ve stuck around as a witness or something, but I drove home (only a couple of miles) and quietly pondered death-by-ladder-through-the-windshield for the rest of the night.

It still freaks me out from time to time, and I still won’t drive directly behind a vehicle with ladders attached to it.

16

I was a passenger in a tiny Toyota (hatchback of some kind) of my ex-bf’s. We were driving a friend home at 1am one November night. Our friend’s house was on the highway, so normally we would be going 100-110 km an hour, but that night, I was feeling weirdly nerved up, and so told my ex to drive 80 km. I don’t know why, but it’s lucky we did…

It all happened in slow motion, too, oddly. There was a deer in the middle of the road. We all knew, the moment we saw it that there was no avoiding it - we were going to fast, and it was frozen there.

I threw my hands over my face and screamed - all I saw was deer ass coming toward my face. I thought we were goners.

Fortunately, though sadly, the deer was just small enough that it flew up and over the car, landing on the other side of the highway. I felt worse for the deer than for us :frowning: The car suffered little damages - the hood was bent in the shape of deer torso and rump, and a headlight was smashed out. The deer broke two legs. :frowning:

We called the police, and one of the newest officers came to our rescue. He had to kill the deer, and he was terribly shaken by it - as we found out later, sitting in the police car filing our report, it was the first time he had ever killed anything. I hugged him. :frowning: The deer was pretty young, a male probably born that spring. He was big, but later on, as our friend’s mother drove us home, I saw a huge doe, and wailed “There goes his mother!”

I had nightmares that night, about driving along the same highway, and the road was full of deer, prancing across, back and forth, and my ex was driving way too fast and I screamed at him to slow down. I didn’t sleep very well for a long while after that.

17

It was about 2:45 in the morning and I was driving my Trailblazer down Sunset Cliffs Road with three friends on the way to a party.

All four of us had smoked copious amounts of marijuana. Three of us, myself included, had smoked copious amounts of methamphetamine. The other two meth-smokers were, at the time, dealers of both drugs mentioned, as well as just about every other drug available within the limits of San Diego County. (They ran their business together–they were cousins.)

For those not familiar with it, Sunset Cliffs is largely one-lane, even though it’s one of the busiest streets in the city. This particular stretch was one in which it was one-lane each side. In a pinch, the shoulder/curb was not an option, as it was littered with parked cars 24/7–especially on this night, as there was a big party going down in the area. (Not the one we were headed to–that one was on the other side of the city. Yeah, I know, rather dumb. Oh well.)

So a white Explorer suddenly appears on the scene, swerving all over the place, heading in the other direction. The driver appears to be Tucker Max Drunk. The car swerved ever-closer, and I panicked and tried to escape the situation, but there wasn’t much I could do. I was stuck right where I was: to the left was the lane sometimes occupied by the Tucker Max imitator, and to the right was a shoulder stuffed end-to-end with parked cars.

So Mr. Hooch finally was right next to me, and I thought I was going to escape alive as he almost passed me, until he swerved one way and then the next and BAM hit me right next to my gas tank.

We tried to follow him, but he was too drunk and driving too recklessly and we just couldn’t keep up with him. We finally parked at the party where everyone saw what happened, and I talked to the guy who owned the apartment the partygoers were visiting. “Someone always calls the cops when they hear a big collision like that this time of night,” said the renter, “so if there’s any reason you don’t want to talk to them I strongly suggest you go somewhere else quickly. Oh, and you might want to switch drivers if you’re faded.” Well, all of us were pretty faded, but I thanked the dude and gave the keys to the only other guy in the car with a driver’s license, one of the dealers, who tended to handle such situations with a clearer head. We headed to the party we originally intended to go to, where we continued to smoke ridiculous amounts of marijuana and methamphetamine.

Needless to say, my parents were none too happy when they found out that I was driving to a party across town at 2:45 in the morning. On top of that, the PD had a policy of not investigating hit-and-runs if the car was moved from the scene before the police were informed. Of course, because of all the drugs we had on us, there was no way we could’ve called the cops at the time of the accident, so we all just said that we didn’t know it was a big deal that we moved the car. (We didn’t, anyway.)

Thankfully, no one was hurt. But my car’s fender flapped around in the wind until we finally got it fixed, and that guy was pretty damn close to hitting the gas tank. Not to mention pretty close to hitting the rear left door.

18

A little similar to Gunslinger’s.

I was driving with two acquaintances up to the Sierra Valley from the SF Bay Area on 80. We had made it to the vicinity of Davis ( where the highway is four or five lanes wide in both directions ) and were moving at a pretty good clip in left lane, when a full-size pickup pulling a trailor came screaming up behind us. We were speeding slightly and keeping up fine with the normal fast lane traffic - he must have been pushing 90-95. We didn’t see him until the last minute and instead of pulling behind us in the fast lane and waiting for us to move over for him, he just came hurdling up beside us and passed on the right. Except that once he had done so, he then decided to cut in front of us, but neglected to factor in the fact that while his truck had passed us ( by inches ), his trailor had not. Consequently his trailor swung in on us and forced us off the road to the left onto a wide gravel shoulder fringed with oleander bushes.

At that speed the driver ( I was riding shotgun ) lost traction on the gravel as we skimmed the edges of the oleander and we commenced to do a full 360 across all four or five lanes of traffic. It was perfectly symmetrical. At the exact mid-point of the highway we were facing exactly backwards watching the oncoming traffic barreling towards us. In just a second or two we ended up firmly planted on the opposite shoulder, facing in the right direction. Shivering slightly.

  • Tamerlane
19

We were on a city tour in Istanbul, home of the original chapter of the Suicidal Drivers’ Club, when the van broke down right on the Corniche. The driver hailed a cab, stuffed us inside, and yelled something at the driver which probably translated to “Get these fucking tourist assholes to Ali Bin Bubba Street on the double, Allah damn it!”, because he took off like a rocket.

We screamed down the road with the speedometer approaching ‘oh shit’ and started around a curve on the wet road. The taxi began one of those four-wheel drifting, hydroplaning skids across the centerline and all I could see in front of us was an ambulance coming in the opposite direction. To this day I don’t know how we missed a head-on fireball crash, since I shut my eyes at the last second, expecting death to walk up any moment and chortle merrily at me. It was hands-down the most frightening experience on the road.

Then there was the time we hit the camel at the pyramids in Egypt, but you didn’t ask for surreal stories.

20

I was driving a team of colleagues home on the M6 (UK) and we encountered one of those spots where the traffic just stops - either because there’s an accident up ahead, or just because the weight of traffic exceeds what the road can smoothly carry. Anyway, as they approached the hazard, many drivers put on their warning lights, as did we.
We joined the tail end of the queue and I happened to look in my rear view mirror to see a white van approaching at full speed (probably in excess of 70mph), somehow oblivious to the stationery traffic ahead of him; a series of instant impressions went through my mind;:
-He’s never going to stop in time
-There’s nowhere else for him to go (the other two lanes were also occupied by stationary vehicles)
-There are people in the back seat of my car

Anyway, I sat, watching him get bigger and bigger, then smoke started pouring off his tyres, then he swerved to the left, missed the rear bumper of my car by inches, somehow careened through a series of opening and closing gaps in the jostling queue and managed to get himself onto the hard shoulder. We passed him a few minutes later and my mates had intended to give him some serious abuse, but he was just sitting there with his face buried in his hands, shaking his head, so we reckoned he was probably well enough aware of the gravity of the situation.