Close calls and highway horrors...
 

Ah alliteration.

Anyway I thought of this topic a few minutes ago after I had what was likely the scariest driving moment of my life.

At around 0300 this morning I was on the highway going home and I'm going up a hill. Just as I get towards the top of it doing 65mph, I'm staring down a pair of headlights from a van in the next lane. He's over the white lines and just hauling ass. If he had drifted over any further I would have been done for right then and there, end of story no doubt about it. But we miss by few feet at most, and then his taillights fade away as he's flying down the rest of the highway towards other motorists. A cop on the other side of the highway took off after him but I have no idea what happened after that. I sincerely hope nobody got hurt. I hear about this stuff in driving classes but I never thought I'd be in that situation.

And so, naturally, this made me wonder, what's the scariest situation you guys have encountered while driving? Yeah I know it's a pretty dark discussion topic, but it's still fresh and I can't get it off my mind just yet.

scary moment
 

I've had a few scary moments and minor traffic accidents in my life.
Without question the scariest was when I was just 17 and still inexperienced behind the wheel. I drove a 72 Chevelle Station Wagon at the time. One afternoon I was suppose to go over to my Grandmothers, instead; I took a detour just to cruise a bit ( In a Wagon ? ! ). There is a hill next to my old house where I grew up, while going up that hill, the sun got in eyes for just a second and when it cleared there was a kid on a bike right in front of me. I cut the wheels to the left as hard as I could, slammed on the brakes but I still hit him. He had been riding on the wrong side and I just didn't see him. Fortunately I didn't kill him. He only had a couple of minor scrapes. I wasn't driving fast anyway. The Deputy Sheriff found no fault with me and I had some honest witnesses that said I wasn't speeding and the kid is the one who messed up.
That experience taught me a lesson though and I've tried to be more careful through neighborhoods since then.

i've had way to many for only having my liscence for 3 years. seems we have a high level of morons on the roads around here.

Rich's story above reminded me of one of my more recent moments and i wasint even driving. i was riding along with my buddie in his old F350 4x4 that has a 10ft wooden flatbed on the back. heading down the mountian and a kid on a bike starts trying to "race" us, he's pedaling like mad and right along side of us, we are kinda chuckling and taking it easy, then we both saw the kid's front wheel start to wobble and next thing we know the kid and his bike smack against the side of the bed and under the truck!!! luckally he bounced back before the rear tires got him and say's " IM OK!" and rides off! meanwhile we both just sat there and cleaned out our pants.... :D lol :D

The scariest moment I had driving was years ago when I had my 91 Z24.

I got onto the on ramp of the expressway here in Windsor. The speed limit on the expressway is 100 kph (a little over 60 mph). Because of the geographical landscape, the on ramp is kinda S shaped. Well I took the on ramp WAAYYY too fast. As I was coming out of the second curve, I lost traction and spun out. I did a 200 degree spin, and came to a stop on the white line between lanes. FACING TRAFFIC. :eek: I came to a stop looking at morning rush hour traffic speeding toward me at nearly 65 mph!

Luckily a very nice trucker coming at me positioned his rig so nobody could get around him. Giving me the opportunity to turn my car around and go on my merry way -- feeling like the worlds biggest ass. :o :thumbsdown:

I want to know how the bloody hell you weren't faulted for anything. Lucky you for getting out clean, and the kid being OK, don't get me wrong, but... what?! Glad everybody was okay though.

and LOL @ the other bike story. :congrats:

Taz, wow. A trucker actually blocked the road... cool thought, what a nice guy. Again, glad nothing worse happened. Hope the car was OK :D I had something similar happen this winter, sans hero truckers. I too was going too fast up a hill on some snow, thinking I could handle it like every other snowstorm I'd been in. Hit a bad spot, did a perfect 180 at highway speed and wound up facing traffic dead on, no more than 3 feet from a concrete barrier. I went on my merry way too, except I felt like the worlds biggest badass. heh. I learned from that though. The disorientation you get as you're spinning out is really trippy. Like you've just gone through a portal or something.

My worse Close call with the Monte

A little history, wasn't long after i got the car, my rear brake line birst one day so was crimped it off so i wasn't loosing fluid

I was heading home from work one day on 35E north getting ready to get onto 494 towards home i'm doing 70-75 at that point and the car infront of me just lays on thier brakes

F-WORD!!!!
I slam on mine and just lock them up(remind you only front ones at this time) so i'm getting closer and closer to this car in a hurry, i make the last minuate decission to steer to the right end up going off the shoulder and into the grass, at this point i let off the brake... there was no one withing 20 car lenght infront of them i gunn it and get back on the road and i see looking at thier gps or somthing with a dumbfounded look and ended they ended up cutting another peoson off to get to the ramp going the opposit way


let alone this just happend to me like 2 weeks erlier in my blazer and when i turned i ended up knicking the verry corner of thier bumper, just enought to leave a black mark and move it like 1/4in towards the front... or course it just had to be an 08 camry so the car was brand new at the time so hello higher ins rates!....

[quote=milrlyt;329905]I want to know how the bloody hell you weren't faulted for anything. Lucky you for getting out clean, and the kid being OK, don't get me wrong, but... what?! Glad everybody was okay though.

Because the kid was riding on the wrong side of the road and some Honest people witnessed the accident.
But Yeah, I was really scared for the kid and myself. I was a nervous wreck for several days after that. The sad thing is two days later, the parents sent the kid ( boy ) over to our house to tell us that he had a brain concussion and fractured leg. What ! :eek:
They tried to get some money out of us and it didn't work.

I'm glad everyone was okay. :thumbsup:

Richard, around here, when ever a vehicle is involved in an accident with a cyclist or pedestrian, they always put the blame on the driver of the car. Pedestrians are basically assumed to be stupid, and ignorant of traffic laws. No matter what the written laws say. The driver of the car is always at fault in the cops eyes. At least around here anyway.