I’ve only been in two incidents since I started driving (and have never been in any incidents as a passenger). Fortunately, neither incident involved other cars or any damage to my car, and one never actually turned into an “accident”. But one was quite embarrassing…
So, one day I wasn’t feeling very good; I was feeling down and depressed. My mother always reminds me that, when I’m feeling that way, I should just go do something. She usually recommends doing some cleaning around the house, but that never sounds very uplifting when I’m feeling down. (But it usually does help if I follow that advice. :rolleyes: )
That day, however, I decided a nice drive would help. I find driving relaxing, if don’t have to go out during rush-hour, or down the main stretch of road in town. I usually always take the back streets and, unlike a lot of drivers around here, I’m a very careful driver. I could take a trip to the mall just outside of town, and totally bypass most traffic on the way there by taking the highway. Sounds good!
Well, the drive may have helped, if I had actually gotten very far. As it was, I was feeling bothered enough that my attention was somewhat inhibited. I pull out of the driveway and make it no more than ten meters down the road, and I’m in the ditch. Fortunately, there was a lot of soft snow in the ditch.
Here’s what happened. First off, as soon as you leave the driveway and turn right, you come to a sharp turn to the right. Secondly, the garage door doesn’t always go down with one push of the button on the remote in the car. Or it might start going down, but stop and start going back up again. So, I’m sure you can figure out what happened.
After I turned out onto the road and started around the corner, I looked over my right shoulder to see if the door was going down. (I always check before I’m actually out of the yard now.) The front wheel on the right just barely went off the pavement and into the dirt. But that was just enough to quickly pull the car to the right and into the ditch.
I was quite embarrassed having to walk back home and through the door just minutes after I left. Actually, I was more worried how my grandfather would react - it was his car. Fortunately, he realized I was now more bothered than I had been before I decided to take a drive was quite calm.
I could see he was somewhat bothered though, until he knew for sure there had been no damage to the car. Of course, we had to wait until my father came with his truck to pull it out of the ditch. Some other guys tried to do it before he got there, but couldn’t move it a bit, with their big, burly off-road TRUKK. My father had the car out of the ditch in about fifteen minutes with his modest machine.
The other incident involved a soft sprinkling of snow and a barely noticeable sheen of ice. The car started fishtailing (the back end swinging back and forth) while I was just starting up a long, modest slope. However, I quickly gained my composure.
Seeing no one coming in the other lane (or behind me), and somehow figuring out which way I wanted to go so I wouldn’t end up in the ditch on my side of the road, I grabbed the steering wheel and held it in place while I stepped on the brake. The car swung around 180 degrees and came to a stop right in the middle of the opposite lane.
I took a deep breath, and drove to the first street off the main road - the lower entrance to a subdivision than ran up the long, modest slope. I drove through the subdivision to the upper entrance, got back on the road, and continued on my way to my parents, where I calmly yet enthusiastically told my tale. 
Anyhoo…