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2 very VERY epic incidents have burned their way into my brain.
1st. I'm driving on a road where there is both an entrance (on the left) to the highway going north, and an exit from the highway (on the right). You can, if you have a green light, get-off the highway and go right, left or straight; which leads you back onto the highway. To make a right turn onto the highway, you have to yield to traffic coming from straight across or from oncoming lanes. I saw 2-vehicles crushed head-to-head at the entrance to the highway. As near as I could figure, an old confused guy had turned right onto the entrance to the highway, changed his mind about entering, and tried to turn-around and get-off at the yield point at which time an oncoming car entering the highway hit him head-on. Totally the stupid old guy's fault.
2nd. I almost died. I saw my life flash before my eyes and froze, and the only last words I could think to utter were "OH." My passenger, who woke-up at that moment, had the presence of mind to finish with "SHIT." I'm going down the highway on a flat (luckily) stretch at 65-70MPH. It was overcast but dry. Then came about 3-warning drops of water followed by a FWOOSH! of rain! I turned-on my lights and started slowing-down because the tire treads from the vehicle in-front of me were filling-in almost instantly, the rain was that bad. Now I was in the middle lane, with a truck lane to the right and the fast lane to the left. Everybody started slowing-down but for this silver 4-door with no lights on several car-lengths in front of me in the fast lane. I saw the car sort of shudder. Then it fish-tailed and started heading right towards the concrete median! Then it over-corrected and began spinning out of control on 2-tires across all the lanes of traffic into the truck lane! It spun about 5-times right across my lane, while still traveling forward somehow! It's trunk flopped-open and it was rocking like it was about to roll! I figured the guy had started to hydroplane and hit his brakes, making him lose control. I couldn't do the same thing or I'd do what he did, so I could only keep going forward while slooowwwly pumping the brakes, because there was traffic to both sides of me. Luckily, the silver car finished spinning across my lane and into the right lane where he lurched to a stop on the shoulder. By that time we'd all slowed to about 40MPH and passed the guy clutching his steering wheel, looking straight ahead, looking like he'd just shat himself. I thought about stopping to check on him, but I didn't want to risk crossing traffic. At least he didn't hit anyone or anything, but it took a while for me to stop shaking! I'm all for being confident driving in bad weather but that dude almost killed people.
1st. I'm driving on a road where there is both an entrance (on the left) to the highway going north, and an exit from the highway (on the right). You can, if you have a green light, get-off the highway and go right, left or straight; which leads you back onto the highway. To make a right turn onto the highway, you have to yield to traffic coming from straight across or from oncoming lanes. I saw 2-vehicles crushed head-to-head at the entrance to the highway. As near as I could figure, an old confused guy had turned right onto the entrance to the highway, changed his mind about entering, and tried to turn-around and get-off at the yield point at which time an oncoming car entering the highway hit him head-on. Totally the stupid old guy's fault.
2nd. I almost died. I saw my life flash before my eyes and froze, and the only last words I could think to utter were "OH." My passenger, who woke-up at that moment, had the presence of mind to finish with "SHIT." I'm going down the highway on a flat (luckily) stretch at 65-70MPH. It was overcast but dry. Then came about 3-warning drops of water followed by a FWOOSH! of rain! I turned-on my lights and started slowing-down because the tire treads from the vehicle in-front of me were filling-in almost instantly, the rain was that bad. Now I was in the middle lane, with a truck lane to the right and the fast lane to the left. Everybody started slowing-down but for this silver 4-door with no lights on several car-lengths in front of me in the fast lane. I saw the car sort of shudder. Then it fish-tailed and started heading right towards the concrete median! Then it over-corrected and began spinning out of control on 2-tires across all the lanes of traffic into the truck lane! It spun about 5-times right across my lane, while still traveling forward somehow! It's trunk flopped-open and it was rocking like it was about to roll! I figured the guy had started to hydroplane and hit his brakes, making him lose control. I couldn't do the same thing or I'd do what he did, so I could only keep going forward while slooowwwly pumping the brakes, because there was traffic to both sides of me. Luckily, the silver car finished spinning across my lane and into the right lane where he lurched to a stop on the shoulder. By that time we'd all slowed to about 40MPH and passed the guy clutching his steering wheel, looking straight ahead, looking like he'd just shat himself. I thought about stopping to check on him, but I didn't want to risk crossing traffic. At least he didn't hit anyone or anything, but it took a while for me to stop shaking! I'm all for being confident driving in bad weather but that dude almost killed people.
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