30 years ago, the 15 driving from San Diego to Las Vegas. 85 mph, blowout in my right front tire. God must have had plans for me because I did not die.
From my experiences, I really should avoid driving west on I-44. Or driving to Ft. Hood, TX.
1988: driving to Ft. Hood from St. Louis for the first time (normal rotation of duty assignments; I had left Germany for a stateside asignment, and was taking leave in St. Louis).
Somewhere down past Rolla, I’m passing a trucker as we come up on a highway exit. Some dumbass decides to stop on the interstate highway to decide whether or not this was really the exit they wanted to take. Mr. truck driver (in the right lane), in order to avoid hitting said dumbass, lays on his horn and just starts coming over into my lane just as I’m coming even with the cab.
With the help of the inside shoulder and heavy braking, I manage (barely) to avoid being run over/run off the road by the truck.
I come to a stop pretty much even with dumbass, who turned out to be a 15 y/o girl driving on a learner’s permit with her 17 y/o sister as the nominally “responsible adult supervision,” neither of whom knew dick about highway driving, and had maybe just shat and pissed themselves at being missed by inches by an incredibly large and loud truck.
1990: I didn’t manage to avoid certain death; a competent truck driver spared me (and a few other people) from certain death due to his mad driving skills.
July of 1990, and I’m driving back to Ft. Hood, TX, from visiting family in St. Louis over the 4th of July. Coming into Oklahoma City on I-44, and westbound traffic is bumper-to-bumper inching along; eastbound traffic is almost bumper-to-bumper, but moving at a pretty good clip.
I’m not paying much attention to what’s going on in the eastbound lanes until some idiot in a micro-compact does a swoop-and-stop in front of a Mack truck doing 50-60mph. The truck driver, in an effort to not kill the dumbass, swerves for the shoulder, and winds up in the grassy median pointed directly at me.
I can see the truck driver, cranking his wheels over to straighten the truck out and stay in the median (and not plow into stalled traffic in the westbound lanes), and the truck is slowly turning away from me, and winds up passing me (still going about 30-40mph) with what looked to be about a 1/4" to spare.
Fortunately for everyone, the ground in the median is firm enough to aid the truck driver in somwehat-controlled stopping without causing the truck or trailer to dig in and stop fairly suddenly (a very bad thing when you have a very heavy, unpowered trailer behind you).
January 7th 2010:
Again on I-44, again, westbound. I was just down to Rolla the day before doing some work for a customer, and needed some specialty parts I didn’t have on my work truck. I order in the parts for next-day air, and drive back to St. Louis. Knowing I’d be back the very next day, I left most of my heavy tools and such at the customer site, so my Ford F-350 XL Super Duty is now about 1/2 of a ton lighter than normal, and all that weight came from the back.
That night, a snow/ice storm hits Missouri, and while it wasn’t really severe, it was bad enough to delay flights and cause all kinds of nasty problems on the roads.
Even with the weather delays, I pick up the parts and head (carefully) back down to Rolla down I-44. The roads are…spotty. There are parts which are just fine, and parts which are black ice, or a close equivalent.
Just past mm 147, I’m climbing a long steep hill, going about 25-30 mph. Going very careful on the gas and brakes the whole drive (up to that point). I’m nearing the top of the hill, and hit a slick spot, and my back end breaks loose and decides it wants to lead.
Round-and-round-and-round I go, and where I stop is… in the median, backwards, with enough force for the back of my truck to climb up the median guard rail and hang up. I wasn’t hurt, and my oopsie didn’t involve anyone else, so other than a few of the people who saw it stopping to check that I was okay, it was just an unpleasant hiccup in the month of January, 2010.
I was driving alone on a boulevard in a recently purchased vehicle, I think it was the minivan, and looked down to figure out the radio. Something in my brain prompted shouldn’t you be looking where you’re going? Looked up just in time to avoid a parked car. :eek:
My husband wasn’t quite that quick Lute - his first brand new car he was taking his mother for a ride and as they were going through an intersection she asked about some button on the radio. He looked to see what she was talking about and ran straight into another car. Fairly low speed but it’s still a family legend.
My closest call came when I was 17 and returning to base after a weekend away. I was late and rushing since I was still on training and we had a pretty strict curfew. The road once you’re on the base is pretty much inside a forest for the first mile or so. A car pulled up behind me and passed me on a curve, apparently he was later than I was. I slowed down a little since I was sure he was going to die in a flaming wreck the way he was driving and I didn’t want to be a part of it. Good thing because as we went around the next curve he hit a deer, spun his car into the woods on our side of the road and the deer flew across the road and knocked the base commanders wife off her bike.
I missed curfew while helping her up and calming her down, the guy in front of me - well the MP’s split up and one dealt with him while the other finished off the deer 
I got a week of extra duty for missing curfew but it was lifted before I served the first session thanks to my new friend who backed up my completely unbelievable story.
A few, of many…
I was driving a company van (Ford E-series) on I-90 between Albany and Amsterdam, NY. I was in the middle lane behind a larger flatbed-style truck carrying 5-6’ oxygen cylinders when I noticed one of the tanks was loose and shaking around in it’s retaining strap. I said to my co-corker in the passenger seat “Wow, that doesn’t look good.” and pulled into the right lane. A tractor-trailer then began to overtake me in the middle lane when the strap broke, the tank fell, hit the pavement, bounced once and lodged in the grill of the semi. If I hadn’t changed lanes it would’ve come right through my windshield.
I was driving NY Rte 2 a month after I got my drivers license, going far too fast and lost control, spun out and wound up sideways, 6" from the guardrail looking out on Petersburg Pass. Damn near straight drop off of a couple hundred feet.
And as if the last one didn’t teach me anything…
Driving on I-87 in Albany, just a light dusting of snow. I was behind a semi and decided I was going to pass. I pulled into the left lane, goosed the gas and managed to get maybe a hundred yards ahead of the truck before I hit some ice under the snow. I hadn’t been driving long, over-corrected, my non-winter rated high performance tires lost traction completely and I spun about 600°. I wound up on the right-hand shoulder, pointing the wrong way and watching the semi come bearing down at me. Luckily, he was a better driver and swung wide and missed me.
I’m amazed I lived trough my 20’s…
I used to work in a town that had several huge trucking operations. New Year’s Eve, I was leaving work and driving home in my MG; four-lane street, two each way. I was in the left lane. The traffic light in front of me turned yellow, and I was at just the right distance that maybe I could make it. But I decided to stop. I hear squealing behind me and in the mirror I can see headlights shuddering up and down. I let off the brakes just enough to stay ahead of the truck. I figured whatever might be in front of me couldn’t be worse than what coming up behind me. I came to a stop just into the intersection; the truck was right at the stop line.
Light turned green. I drove home. No worries.
Quite a few - I used to drive a truck over the road and have driven quite a bit on several continents. Including the middle east, South America and some of those scary mountain highways with hairpin turns, no crash barriers and 1000-foot drops. Plus I have driven for almost 40 years. So I’ve had many, many close calls, although my last at-fault accident was in 1980.
A notable one - I was slowing down for stopped traffic on I-80 in a car, and saw a car behind me coming VERY fast in my lane; I knew the driver wouldn’t be able to stop. I switched lanes quickly and he slammed into the person who’d been in front of me. Not sure of the outcome because by that time I was too far ahead to see but an ambulance showed up pretty quickly and started tending to people who were involved.
Also, you know those signs with the rocks falling on the highway, and you wonder WTF is the point because if you’re driving along and a giant rock falls onto the highway there’s really not much you can do? I was driving in Mexico on a twisty mountain road with multiple signs picturing falling rocks and !!PELIGRO!! I’d just finished making a jokey comment to my passenger about it when I swear to doG, a rock the size of a house bounced across the road right in front of us, followed by a bunch of dirt and smaller rocklets.
I could tell you, but it’s just easier to showyou.
About once a week someonetries to killme…
This one’s hoodflew up in the fast lane - could have been worse.
Thisis a former UPS driver throwing caution (and traffic laws) to the wind…
There are so many more…
A couple years ago I was driving on Highway 41 heading south. I was watching a good distance ahead of me and saw the red light turn green. For reasons unknown to me to this day, I kept watching the light to make sure it stayed green & didn’t go back to yellow.
This caused me to miss the fact that the traffic stopped there was not moving because the cross street had a firetruck coming that I didn’t hear. When I looked up and saw the stopped traffic, there was a moment of sheer terror, I just KNEW I was going to rear-end the truck in front of me. Somehow, and I will never figure out just HOW, I hit the brakes and edged to the right (I was in the left lane.) There were trucks in both lanes. My van very neatly pulled in between the two trucks and came to a stop. Never touched either truck, but let me tell you my heart was in my mouth.
Wow. There are some doozies here!
The only thing I can think of is the time my husband and I were going up to Lake Tahoe in the winter and while the roads were fairly clear, there was still a light dusting of snow. Anyway, we’re in the right lane and see a car pulling out of a rest stop ahead so we move to the left lane to allow them to merge. For some inexplicable reason the car pulled into the left lane RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. Husband yanked the wheel to the left and we zoomed past on the shoulder. We spent the rest of the drive shouting “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!”
Driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, January 2002 or so. It was probably 36 degrees as we came through Breezewood headed West in the rain. Within 50 miles it must have been getting colder.
Driving my 1988 cushy Grand Marquis, the rear end of the car fishtailed a bit to the right, then to the left. Within seconds, the whole car started to do a figure eight. Might have even spun around more than once. The only thing that saved us was that there were no other cars within a few hundred yards. We wound up off on the right berm, facing oncoming traffic. Engine dead.
After making sure everyone in the car was OK, and thinking about changing my pants, we drove on. IN the next two miles saw perhaps 10 cars off on the right, some had crashed into guard rails, other cars, etc. Mayhem. We were lucky.
The road had frozen over in a matter of minutes,to the peril of all.
I ride a motorcycle, so I’ve had lots.
But this one I remember clearly. Actually wasn’t nearly as close to death as many other occaisons, but it stands out.
Went to pass some slow mover on a short straight, pulled out and nailed it, got up to just about the edge of the front fender when I threw a chain. Now, throwing a chain can be a quick, short experience when it snags up on any moving part and binds up the rear wheel, sending you into a skid and laying it down. Or, I could have gotten a few feet further and pulled in front of the guy I was passing, then lost all drive.
No, instead, I remained right next to the guy, on the center line, slowing ever so slightly as the GIANT bus came aroung the corner! Well, I had no drive, and the guy next to me had no idea what was happening, so, I stuck it out in the middle of the narrow mountain hiway inbetween a GIANT bus and a little truck. Woosh! The bus passed, I dropped behind the guy I was passing and was able to pull over and fix the thrown chain.
Couldn’t have been a foot to spare, split on either side.
Had a transmission lock on me once, too. Not as exciting, but I got a little scar from it.
I was driving from San Francisco to Dallas back in the 80s. Not only did I fall asleep at the wheel TWICE (the rumble strip on the side of the road woke me up just in time to avoid the concrete bridge only feet in front of me), I was seeing imaginary deer jumping out in front of me in El Paso. I made it to my destination alive but slept for 24 hours straight.
My dad was driving the family van (Dodge Ram 250) on I-5 in LA on the way to San Francisco. We were in the fast lane, doing about 75, when we heard a loud “POP” and a screeching sound. We then witnessed a large 70’s type sedan careening across all lanes of traffic. It probably did two whole revolutions before it impacted the center divider. My dad’s reaction? Slight swerve to the right, pass the car, correct back to the left. We went for McDonalds breakfast shortly thereafter. I wasn’t hungry.
My closest shave as a driver was when I traveled cross country to buy my car. I took a red eye from SF to North Carolina, and hardly slept a wink. This was the beginning of a theme as I drove basically the whole way while sleep deprived (bad idea, kids!). After getting a 3 hour nap at my friend’s place in Austin, I drearily hit the road towards I-10, and while on a country road in Texas the first time I saw the deer in the road was through my driver’s side window. He was standing still. I thank my lucky stars he chose that lane and not mine.
I forgot my other close call. In high school, I was visiting my friend in another town during the summer, and his older sister drove us to a park to drink a pack of beer. After drinking the beer, the sister was driving us home on the highway which was gaining some elevation, and while me and my friend were talking in the back seat, the car suddenly want off the right side of the highway and came to a rest on some flat dirt. After a few moments of looking at each other in disbelief, we all commented on what would have happened if we were going the other way since the highway went along the edge of cliff.
I was driving on the autobahn in Germany, not too far from Berlin. I was doing 180-190 kph (roughly 120 mph). Suddenly, what appeared to be a young deer jumped into the autobahn. It was right in front of me. I didn’t have time to swerve or anything. I just kept going on the same lane. Fortunately the deer showed astounding agility and avoided me. Good thing that I didn’t swerve, for I would have hit it… I think that soon after the deer went back into whatever forest it jumped out of; I was not in a state to care too much about it.
At the time I was thinking I had to find some gas station to use the toilet. I ended up stopping at the next gas station on the autobahn and going to the toilet, but not to use it – to change clothes.
At approx. 120 mph, swerving is almost a guaranteed crash.
OK, wrong word on my part. Instead of “swerving” I should have written “avoiding”.
In any case, as I said, there was no time to do anything on my part.
My husband and I saw a terrible accident on Christmas Eve, and the guy is apparently going to be fine.
We were headed to Kingman, AZ and were about 10 miles out on 40. I was reading in the passenger seat and all of a sudden my husband said, “oh shit oh shit oh shit” while looking in the rear view mirror. I looked out the back and saw something out of a movie - a car, flipping end over end behind us, surrounded by clouds of dust and smoke.
My husband Jason stopped and reversed up the nearby exit and told me to call 911 while he sprinted over to the car (which landed wheels down in the grassy area between 40 and Griffin Rd). A truck driver (who was right behind the accident) also stopped to assist. He told Jason he saw the driver ejected from the car during the accident (neither of us saw that).
According to Jason, the driver was standing and talking when he got there but was wandering near the road. The truck driver helped the injured driver while Jason and an off duty policeman started directing traffic. After I got off the phone with 911 (which was a tough call, I’m not from AZ and didn’t know much about where we were), I went over and took a few great shots of the wrecked car (my photos were MUCH better than the newspaper shot). I ended up going back to our car and staying out of the way. It turned out my call was the only 911 call, which was really surprising considering the amount of people around!
Jason says he thinks the guy fell asleep at the wheel (while traveling at a high speed) and when he hit the rumble strips he jerked his car too far the other way, crossed the road and flipped his car.
It really is a Christmas miracle the guy was thrown from the car and lived, it was horrific to watch. And no seat belt! Glad that his family got to have a good Christmas after all!