[slideways]

Going home in the slow lane like always and a woman in a late model BMW is creeping by on my left. She gets beside me and I'm not talkin' I'm in her blind spot, I mean we are almost side by side! She realizes her exit is just down the road and snaps her car into my lane which in turn snaps me into instant adrenaline rush survival mode :shock: . I cranked the wheel hard to the breakdown lane before I could even think. Now is when I did the stupid thing and I let off the gas as I crank the wheel the other way to keep me in the break down lane and out of the ice plant. The first swerve the front end plowed a little the second one with engine braking going on got the back end swinging. I came to my senses and gased it (this is one time I wish the Insight had a little more if you know what I mean) and got myself going straight down the breakdown lane without swapping ends. Full pucked mode subsides and I flip on the turn signal and merge back onto the freeway right behind Mrs. #$&*[email protected] having never gotten under 50mph. I hit the high beams to register my displeasure for about 10sec and as Mrs. #$&*@ exits the freeway she turns to me and flips me off.

This ladies and gentlemen is exactly why I have never owned a gun and never should.......... :evil:

Anyway now I know a little better what the Insight will do when really pressed.

 

[William]

Slideways:

Glad to hear you survived. People just don't pay enough attention to the other drivers on the road. I guess you now realize that the Insight doesn't handle like a race car, but in this case was good enough to help you survive. It is interesting how sometimes we instinctively brake or accelerate at the wrong time when we are placed in emergency driving situations. I am seriously thinking of taking a hands on driver emergency hazard course. Keep an eye out for those BMW's.

Bill

 

[Electric CO]

...

 

[flunkysama]

Speaking of clueless BMW drivers, check out this link. (Yes, it's satire.)

 

[Sparky5501]

I am seriously thinking of taking a hands on driver emergency hazard course.

I would HIGHLY recommend everyone take such a course. Not only do you learn manuvers to get you out of sticky situations but you also get to know the limits of your vehicle.

At one of the drivers schools my Alfa Romeo Club hosts, we had an older couple in their early seventies who were tramatized by an accident they had. They were forced off the road simillar to slideways but were in their Winnabago and ended up on their side in a ditch. Well, needless to say they were very hessitant driving anywhere after that accident. It was a very dramatic change to watch their progress during the school. They went from being timmid in the exercises to driving with confidence and control by the end of the day.

 

[Holicow]

Re: My first hi speed lane change aka driven to the ditch by

This ladies and gentlemen is exactly why I have never owned a gun and never should.......... :evil:
...

I, too, fight the urge. I am trying very hard.

Good reflexes, by the way.

I bet she had a cell phone in her other hand.

 

[Guillermo]

This is just another example why everyone should take an advanced driver training course. The exercises in these courses will teach your instincts to react correctly. There is no time to analyse the theory and think about what you need to do during an emergency.
95% of collisions are avoidable!
Therefore they should not be called accidents!

Glad you're ok,

 

[james]

"This ladies and gentlemen is exactly why I have never owned a gun and never should..."

On the other hand, I'd give good odds that a jury would accept a plea of justifiable homicide. Sure would if I was on it

 

[Guest]

Hi Slideways:

___In the larger scheme of things, I am glad the you are alright first and foremost and that the Insight survived its brush with death as well! It will only be matter of time before that Beemer driver ends up actually having a collision and lets hope for the sake of both drivers that it is a minor fender bender and not something much more serious …

___Using the breakdown lane is sometimes our last hope for survival as I have already had to use it 3 x in 7,400 miles. Those passing on the right is what has forced me to it so I had a bit more of a heads up as to what was coming then what you just experienced … Scary, just plain scary.

___Flunkysama, cool ink

___Good Luck and thanks for sharing.

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:2k56n4l4][email protected][/email:2k56n4l4]

 

[figgy]

Homicide

:twisted:
I would give you an award for cleaning out the bad drivers from the gene pool!

 

[slideways]

For all who have suggested driving schools I agree. I've raced karts, motorcycles and bicycles. Kart schools are much cheaper and you can still learn lots.

Thanks for all the kutos about saving it. Amazing what you can do with your eyes closed

 

[flunkysama]

I look forward to the day where you can get an optional video camera fitted to your car (with high enough def to read license plates of course). So whenever you see someone driving dangerously, you just hit a button and the last X seconds of video is automatically sent to the police. Along with your coordinates from your built-in GPS too.
*sigh* when will the future ever arrive???

 

[Holicow]

"Slideways"

Perhaps your screenname choice was a bit prophetic??

 

[SeanW]

Having been in this situation a few times myself I have adopted more of a "let them hit me" mentality. If your evasive action had put you up into the ivy, do you think she would have cared, stopped, or even noticed.

You obviously wanted to teach her a lesson. I think her bill for Insight and BMW repairs might turn on a light.

 

[Sparky5501]

I've raced karts...

Ah, that explains why you were so sucessful in correcting out of the oversteer situation. Experience from karting accelerates your danger avoidance responce times. Well that, and remembering to keep your foot in it when the back end wants to come around on you in a FWD car.

There's nothing like the feeling of correcting your kart in a corner after someone has bumped you from behind. :twisted:

 

[speed]

I unfortunately face this all the time on my other transportation, a motorcycle. And they always act like its my fault that I was in the way. No way I could carry a gun, there would be dead peeps all over Dallas.

 

[MikeF]

I don't flip people off, and I don't react when people flip me off.

One summer when I was in college, I got my first jury duty notice. I reported to the courthouse, and was empanelled in a jury for a manslaughter case. Two cars, with two young men in each, had somehow gotten to a point where one of the men flipped the other car off. The two cars then raced each other through the city for a little while, until they both pulled over. All four men got out; one pair advanced on the other, and the passenger of one car hit the passenger of the other car in the face so hard that the victim's eye socket was imploded back into his head. The victim fell, hitting his head on the curb and fracturing his skull. Not long after the paramedics arrived, he was dead.

The defendant claimed self defense, and argued that the victim struck first. After hearing all the evidence, we decided he was lying, and convicted him. He went to jail for 7-12 years.

No guns, no weapons of any kind. Just cars, fists, and testosterone. And that finger.

It was good for me to experience that as a young man -- I was the same age as the defendant. It made me much less likely to over-react when people do stupid things on the road.

MF

 

[Foxpaw]

I look forward to the day where you can get an optional video camera fitted to your car (with high enough def to read license plates of course). So whenever you see someone driving dangerously, you just hit a button and the last X seconds of video is automatically sent to the police. Along with your coordinates from your built-in GPS too.
*sigh* when will the future ever arrive???

I reckon you could already do that. In fact, I think there's many people who already have a setup like that, though I've never heard of any that would automatically call the police.

There is a fundamental problem with that approach though - I can't speak for where you live, but in Canada, unless a police officer sees you driving dangerously, you can't be convicted of it. Simple reason being, even if you got the plate, there's no guarantee that the driver at the time is the same as the driver when the car gets pulled over. Hence, there has to be a police officer witnessing it from incident to indentification of the culprit.

 

[figgy]

Rage in a bottle

I second that as far as safety goes. It isn't going to make them better drivers to point out to them how rotten they are in the first place.

Same goes for when you are practically run over as a pedestrian. Safer for you as a ped vs. a car to keep your rage boiling internally rather than let it out then and there.

The only trouble is if there isn't a convenient stress release activity handy, you will soon die of bottled up rage for all the times you acted with sense and patience for the other person's idiocy. :evil:

It's the stress that is the killer one way or the other. Kind of related, some govt agency even went so far as to say that the stress caused by being anxious about exercise and diet in some limited cases is worse than just being relaxed about not enough exercise and diet. Our tax dollars hard at work.

 

[Holicow]

.... Kind of related, some govt agency even went so far as to say that the stress caused by being anxious about exercise and diet in some limited cases is worse than just being relaxed about not enough exercise and diet. Our tax dollars hard at work.

Oh give me a break! :roll: Not you...whoever did this "study".

My roof-mounted RPG shoud be here in the next week. :twisted: