My near death experience
Dec. 17th, 2004 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwangoEarlier tonight, I was driving in the left lane of Route 290, and I drove around a curve to discover someone speeding towards me in the wrong direction in my lane. I swerved out of the way and lost control of the car. I think I hit the guard rail on the right side of the highway - no one pulled over, so if I hit another car, they drove away. Regardless, I hit something and if it was on the right side of the road then I must have bounced back across the highway, because I then spun around some more and finally came to rest facing the wrong way with the right front corner of the car scraping against the concrete embankment. Some people behind me pulled over to see if I was okay, which I was, aside from being terrified. They marveled that someone was insane enough to be driving the wrong way in the fast lane, and offered to wait with me for the police to bear witness to the fact that I wasn't at fault. I'm very grateful for this, because it hadn't occured to me at the time that this might be necessary.
Eventually, someone slowed down next to us and told us that they had called the police and that they had seen the maniac still driving away. After a while, we saw some police cars on the other side of the highway, presumably trying to chase the guy. Later still, some cops showed up on our side of the road. At first they asked which of us had been driving the wrong way, but the people with me immediately began saying that it wasn't any of us, and that the guy was still speeding away on the wrong side of the road. The police radioed this in, and someone slowed down to mention to them that some nutcase was driving on the wrong side of the highway a few exits back. They asked me if I saw the car at all, I replied that all I saw were headlights. One of the people who stopped and waited with me gave them a better description.
My car was in pretty good shape, all things considered. I have a nasty dent in the left rear that bent the whole rear panel a bit, and my turn signal is broken. There's some bent metal and a lot of scuffing on the front right as well. It looked safe to drive, though, so the police had me move out of the flow of traffic and take the next exit, where we could meet up and they could get my information. There, they reassured me that they would say in the report that the accident was the fault of the crazy person driving the wrong way on the highway, and that they had recordings of the radio conversations about it to support that fact. They gave me an incident report number to give to my insurance company, and said that they shouldn't give me any trouble.
I don't know how much of the road I spun around on. At the time, it felt like I was all over the place, and I was amazed that I didn't hit someone. One of the people who stopped and waited with me was amazed by how little damage I suffered, though, and complimented me on what he referred to as my 'amazing driving.' It sure didn't feel amazing, but I'm grateful that I didn't hit someone else or hit anything harder than I did regardless of whether luck or skill is responsible. I remember that, as this was happening, I felt angry that I couldn't seem to get the car back under control, and I was hoping that I could recover from it without hitting anything. I do remember managing to avoid hitting the wall at least once, and maybe that's what the person was talking about when he complimented my driving. If I'd hit the wall while I was still going faster it probably would have been much more serious, to say nothing of what would have happened if I hadn't swerved out of the way at all and had hit the guy head on. Still, it would have been even nicer to just swerve out of the way and keep on going without skidding all over the place and crashing into a wall.
As much as the whole thing is upsetting, I really am just grateful to be alive, and not even injured. My hand hurts a bit from the jolt to the steering wheel when I hit the embankment, but at worst I might end up with a bruise. Everyone said that I was incredibly lucky, and I agree with them.
Eventually, someone slowed down next to us and told us that they had called the police and that they had seen the maniac still driving away. After a while, we saw some police cars on the other side of the highway, presumably trying to chase the guy. Later still, some cops showed up on our side of the road. At first they asked which of us had been driving the wrong way, but the people with me immediately began saying that it wasn't any of us, and that the guy was still speeding away on the wrong side of the road. The police radioed this in, and someone slowed down to mention to them that some nutcase was driving on the wrong side of the highway a few exits back. They asked me if I saw the car at all, I replied that all I saw were headlights. One of the people who stopped and waited with me gave them a better description.
My car was in pretty good shape, all things considered. I have a nasty dent in the left rear that bent the whole rear panel a bit, and my turn signal is broken. There's some bent metal and a lot of scuffing on the front right as well. It looked safe to drive, though, so the police had me move out of the flow of traffic and take the next exit, where we could meet up and they could get my information. There, they reassured me that they would say in the report that the accident was the fault of the crazy person driving the wrong way on the highway, and that they had recordings of the radio conversations about it to support that fact. They gave me an incident report number to give to my insurance company, and said that they shouldn't give me any trouble.
I don't know how much of the road I spun around on. At the time, it felt like I was all over the place, and I was amazed that I didn't hit someone. One of the people who stopped and waited with me was amazed by how little damage I suffered, though, and complimented me on what he referred to as my 'amazing driving.' It sure didn't feel amazing, but I'm grateful that I didn't hit someone else or hit anything harder than I did regardless of whether luck or skill is responsible. I remember that, as this was happening, I felt angry that I couldn't seem to get the car back under control, and I was hoping that I could recover from it without hitting anything. I do remember managing to avoid hitting the wall at least once, and maybe that's what the person was talking about when he complimented my driving. If I'd hit the wall while I was still going faster it probably would have been much more serious, to say nothing of what would have happened if I hadn't swerved out of the way at all and had hit the guy head on. Still, it would have been even nicer to just swerve out of the way and keep on going without skidding all over the place and crashing into a wall.
As much as the whole thing is upsetting, I really am just grateful to be alive, and not even injured. My hand hurts a bit from the jolt to the steering wheel when I hit the embankment, but at worst I might end up with a bruise. Everyone said that I was incredibly lucky, and I agree with them.
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Date: 2004-12-18 04:58 am (UTC)I hope your car is easy to repair too.
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Date: 2004-12-18 05:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-18 08:58 am (UTC)Sorry, man.
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Date: 2004-12-18 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-18 02:55 pm (UTC)One night when driving home I was briefly that crazy person. I lost control of my car and the ice pulled me into the oncoming lane. Fortunately I spun out and landed on the side of the right hand side of the road facing the way I had come. The car that I almost hit just kept on going too. Luckily there was no vehicle damage and I was able to drive home considerably shaken and at 15mph. :)
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Date: 2004-12-18 09:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-18 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:17 am (UTC)