Scary Driving

[3894]

Inspired by the Minneapolis bridge!

What's your all-time most white-knuckle driving experience? Mine was two hours of bumper-to-bumper in Montreal this summer. Talk about your crumbling infrastructure. Also your suicidal drivers.

[lashbear]

Big Sur. Trying to drive AND look at scenery.

[Mousey Girl]

Watching an accident occur on the 710 and having to react to make sure I didn't become part of it.

[scaeagles]

In Flagstaff, AZ, I was driving at a pretty slow speed in a torrential thunderstorm. A lightening strike hit a light pole about 4 feet behind and to the right of the vehicle. Incredibly loud, and every piece of hair on my body stood straight up. The pole fell into the road between my car and the car behind ours.

The other one was in Flagstaff as well. Lots of snow in the winter in Flagstaff, and some hilly driving near the University. I was in a light pick up truck coming down a hill, and I lost the ability to stop. I slid a good couple hundred yards down a hill, through a red light and a stop sign. Miraculously, I hit nothing nor was I hit.

[€uroMeinke]

Beating the Train

[Stan4dSteph]

On the road up to Pasadena right outside the outlet mall that looks like a cheesy castle. Someone had stopped in the left hand lane for no reason, immediately backing up the traffic. For some reason I didn't notice, and had to brake hard and swerve to the right to avoid hitting the stopped line of cars. Somehow I managed to guide the vehicle between the cars to the left and right.

I had to get off the freeway for a little while to let the adrenaline get out of my system.

[Capt Jack]

steering wheel coming off in my hands at freeway speed


now THATS entertainment

[Alex]

Back in 1995 I was driving a group of us up to some 24-hour bowling alley in Everett, Washington, at around 2 a.m. I accelerated to pass around some slow truck and the throttle stuck completely open.

Standing on the brakes I could barely slow the car down. I'm dodging other cars while trying to decide what my options were and how long I should wait to notify my friends of our impending death. Putting the car into neutral killed speed but with the throttle full open it sounded like the engine was going to explode. Eventually with a combination of standing on the brakes, application of the handbrake, and going in and out of neutral I got to a stop on the side of the road.

Another time driving a friend back late to the University of Washignton's Pack Research Forest out on some back mountain road in the Cascades with one dim headlight.

A third time we took a back road out of Death Valley and into the Central Valley, again at night, and went through about 30 miles of the densest fog I've ever been in. Literally 15 feet visibility over winding 1.5 lane mountain road.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

On the road up to Pasadena right outside the outlet mall that looks like a cheesy castle.

The cheesy castle was the Samson Tire and Rubber Company. (http://www.learningsites.com/NWPalace/NWP_Assyromania.htm)

I was driving on highway 38 near big bear when it started to snow. I pulled over at a turnout in a curve to let some people pass. I pulled off the road a bit too quick ( I didn't want to slow down the people behind me), and hit an ice patch. The only thing that kept us from going off the edge and off a cliff (no guard rails), was a sign post that I hit. I was a bit shaky after that.

[Not Afraid]

I was rear-ended going on the 91 freeway driving back from Palm Springs by a truck going about 90 while I was going 60. He smashed the back of the CRV then drove off. The back window shattered sending glass everywhere. Chris was in front of me in the other Honda and had no idea what happened.

[BarTopDancer]

I was just a kid but I remember this like it happened yesterday.

My mom and I were driving down a two lane road in Nova Scotia. All of a sudden traffic backed up as if there was an accident.

There was an accident. A gas truck was on fire on the side of the road, and people were slowing down to look at it.

Scared the crap out of me.

[Strangler Lewis]

I was in a light pick up truck coming down a hill, and I lost the ability to stop. I slid a good couple hundred yards down a hill, through a red light and a stop sign. Miraculously, I hit nothing nor was I hit.

Driving up the road to Sugar Bowl in a blizzard in our Honda Civic. This light pick-up truck came spinning down the hill. I got the car as far over to the right as possible, and the truck missed us by inches.

Actually, the most hair-raising things happen regularly in city streets when I go to make a lawful turn and I realize that someone in a "vehicle" is going to run the red. That always leaves me playing tape for twenty minutes about whether, next time, I should speed up, back up or stand still so that my door takes the hit instead of my kids'.

[Gemini Cricket]

There's an interesection in North Hollywood that I find very intimidating. (You may remember this intersection from the film The North Avenue Irregulars.)
It's where Vineland Ave, Lankershim Blvd and Camarillo St intersect. It's a crazy light situation and it's hard to figure out where to go. I guess that's what happens when a street, avenue and boulevard intersect, it creates a black hole.
:D

[Snowflake]

There's an interesection in North Hollywood that I find very intimidating. (You may remember this intersection from the film The North Avenue Irregulars.)
It's where Vineland Ave, Lankershim Blvd and Camarillo St intersect. It's a crazy light situation and it's hard to figure out where to go. I guess that's what happens when a street, avenue and boulevard intersect, it creates a black hole.
:D

Gah, I know this intersection well (a good friend lives on Peachgrove not too far away) I hate this intersection!

I don't know if this is the scariest, several years back, on a very foggy friday night (I was not driving) and my friend was on 101 S, just coming out of one of the turns before you reach Army (now Cesar Chavez), he was speeding, and as we rounded the curve and saw the straightaway, nothing but brake lights in all lanes, traffic dead stopped. He his the brakes, the road was wet, and we ended up whacking a car in front of us and then turned around facing the wrong direction on the side of the road. Seatbelts are a good thing.

[lizziebith]

GC we hate that one too!

My worst incident was when a boulder about 3 feet in circumference lost its purchase on the back of a flat-bed truck in front of me and came bouncing toward the front end of my old Volvo -- it happened so fast that I didn't have time to brake, just swerve wildly, and when we'd escaped the big bouncy rock, my 4-year-old said "nice driving, Mommy!" which gave me the adrenaline-fueled giggles.

[wendybeth]

Driving through the flats of Wyoming on our way back home from Denver we noticed a rather large vortex heading directly toward us. There was literally no where to go, and we knew we couldn't outrun it. It was probably less than a minute away when I noticed a dirt side road off the other side of the freeway, so I cut through the median and took off down that road as fast as I could. We just managed to miss the worst part of the storm system, but I ended up having to drive through Jackson Hole and the Tetons instead of up through Montana as planned. Later, we found out that several people had been killed by that tornado system in Littleton, which is where we had been staying.

Oh, and I almost died of boredom driving through Texas.

[Snowflake]

Oh, and I almost died of boredom driving through Texas.

That was me in Iowa last summer, and Wyoming and Utah and Nevada, but then I talked to NA for a while and the drive got better.

[Morrigoon]

Driving to work at DFW at about 4am one stormy morning, with rain pounding on my windshield so hard I had to stop under several overpasses to let cloudbursts pass (if you've never seen just how hard it can rain in Texas, you haven't seen rain), and about 1/8 mile from the next overpass I was going to pause under lightning struck somewhere so close to me that I was literally blinded for a few seconds. I think I actually cried.

Either that, or the time my accelerating cruise control got stuck in the open position (eg: accelerating w/out need for gas pedal) and I was going 85 mph up the steep side of the grapevine WITH the brakes on at 2am. Same story as Alex, only add me pulling off on some dark mountain road exit, throwing my car into neutral, shutting the engine off, pulling the parking brake and flying out of my car, only to discover my wheels glowing orange, thinking my car was on fire, realizing my cell phone was out of power as I tried to call 911 and got cut off, and finally being rescued by some random old couple that drove past (on this quiet lonely road where so few cars drove by), and by that time being able to tell 911 I'm okay and that my discs were apparently just glowing hot, but not actually on fire (because the glow died down over this 20-minute period)

[innerSpaceman]

Driving to Northern Cali via the 5 one morning, through an unrelenting sand storm. Visibility was, well, zero, but I'm on the freeway ... so the slowest I deign to drive is 40mph. After about 50 miles of it not letting up, my daughter is so panicked in the back seat (and yeah, I realize we've likely used up our luck in driving that fast with no visibility for that long) - we pull over to the side of the road to ride it out.


It doesn't stop. After an hour, we imagine it's letting up a bit and start driving again, keeping the speed down to 25-30 mph.


Nothing happened to us, but driving that long at even those speeds was scary as all fu ck.

:(


When we reached our destination, we discovered that - about 6 miles behind where we pulled over to stop - a 100+ car pile-up stopped all traffic on the 5 for the rest of the day. We missed that by less than 10 minutes.



Oh, and we had to replace our completely sand-pitted windshield.

[Morrigoon]

Wow, you were on the 5 for that, eh?

[katiesue]

5 late at night tooling along at say 80ish. No one around me. Come up on a car in the right lane, I'm in the left. As I pull next to him he totally comes over into my line (mind you no one ahead of him for miles). I ended up doing donuts on the 5 while dodging oncoming cars. Trying to pull over and slow down and that whaever crap bump stuff they have in the medians to keep you on the road is brutal. Makes it hard to steer.

Driving once and the hood on the truck just suddenly popped up and bent over the windshield.

Going down Olympic on my way to work when the brakes went totally out.

405 North near the 10 one morning. Zipping along and one of my rear wheel spindles broke (they told me later) making the tire basically freeze and quit rotating. After the nice policman called AAA and they towed me and I finally get to work no less than 8 people mentioned they'd seen me on the side of the road -umm hello perhaps pull over and help?

[alphabassettgrrl]

I've had a lot of minor adventures. I still remember the first time I hit 85mph. I was scared that my mother would somehow find out and kick my butt. I was late for something.

Driving from Montana to Wyoming through a white-out blizzard was interesting. We could see about five feet in front of the car. We had another car trip in a blizzard where we could see, but did have to be careful. A car with California plates passed us, but we caught back up to him in just a few minutes. He didn't pass us again. This was a storm which tipped over semi-trucks into the ditch.

Driving from Montana to California was a road trip from the darkest pits of bad. Blowout tire at 11 at night; getting lost above Valencia somewhere, with all our stuff in the car and trailer, no money, and no sleep for a couple of days; having a flat on the trailer and U-Haul not being able to find us (pre-cellphone). We nearly killed each other on this trip. Oh, and the car overheated on the short trip from ... what's that city on the east end of Nevada? It's only about 80 miles from there to Vegas, where we were stopping, and the car overheats.

Luckily I haven't had many adventures here in California other than finding my way in unfamiliar areas.

[Gemini Cricket]

I'm glad I'm not the only one scared by the North Avenue Irregulars intersection.

I'd like to add to the list of scary driving: all Massachusetts roads.
:D

[AllyOops!]

I was 17 yrs. old & I was working at Disneyland. My Grandma & Grandpa had just bought me a brand spankin' new Toyota Corolla SR5. All sporty & blue! :) My new car didn't even have plates yet. :(

One night, I stayed out way past curfew (only because I was spending the night at one of my best girlfriend's house, who worked in Frontierland). She was already home (since Frontierland closed way before Main Street, where I worked) and after I kissed my boyfriend, the Big Thunder cowboy, good-bye, I raced to her house. The reason I'm being so detailed, I suppose, is that I can remember every single moment of that night crystal clearly. I remember my entire outfit (but um, I remember every occasion by outfit. :()

And race I did. While I was on the freeway, I decided to see how fast I could take my new car. In my youthful wisdom, I decided to see if I could take the needle to end of the speedometer.

WHY ARE WE SO RECKLESS AND THOUGHTLESS IN OUR YOUTH?

As I took my car to 110 MPH, I realized, "Hey! There's the freeway ramp I need to turn onto!" (I needed to take two freeways to get to my girl friend's house)

I turned my wheel to turn onto the second freeway, but at the speed I was going, I lost control. My tire also struck an object on the road and I blew a tire. I began spinning in circles and screaming. I couldn't grab onto my wheel. It was spinning too fast. I thought "PLEASE don't let me hit the median! I'll crash my car and be in big trouble!"

Then, I began to pray I'd hit the median, since my other option was toppling off the embankment.

Of course, I toppled off the embankment. I remember 3 trillion thoughts entering my mind all at once, and as fast as the speed of light. When the car flipped onto the roof, I was knocked out, and thankfully, I rolled five times with my car in a peaceful & relaxed state.

When I came to, I was hanging upside down, restrained by my seatbelt, which I struggled to unlatch. I was so disoriented all I could think was "I've seen enough Charlie's Angels, CHiPs & Dukes Of Hazzard episodes to know this could explode!"

Okay, not likely. But what did I know? I was stupid enough to race my car.

I crawled out the shattered back window, and I remember looking at my hands and thinking, "I didn't even break an acrylic nail! I must be totally fine!! I bet I can just push the car over and all will be well. " I ACTUALLY THOUGHT THAT. Heaven help my parents.

However, upon escape, I flew up the hill, wonked on adrenaline I suppose. I screamed so loudly for help that I woke up a couple at an apartment complex across the way. When I called for help on the call box, I told the operator that I felt completely fine. They asked me to check for sure and see. When I looked down, my outfit was splattered in blood. I fainted. On the side of the freeway. It was just a NIGHTMARE from beginning to end. It was like a scene from "Faces Of Potential Death For Complete And Utter F*cktards That Take Lame-Ass Chances" (if that existed). The paramedics & police arrived, and stuck an oxygen mask on my face (I was hyperventilating like a nutjob) and strapped me up and rushed me off to the hospital after they determined I was under the influence of nothing (except being an idiot).

My car, of course, was completely totaled. In retrospect, I could have been totaled. My belt is what saved my life.

I was fortunate. I was totally fine except for minor cuts and lacerations. What do I remember most? My mouth and face full of dirt. I had bits of weeds, gravel & glass in my mouth. ACK. My Dad alternated from screaming at me to hugging me at the hospital. I certainly don't blame him. Looking back, he probably should have whacked me upside the head with my destroyed bumper.

It's been so long since I've told that story! I've been in quite a few accidents. That one totally took the cake, however. :(

[alphabassettgrrl]

Ally, that sounds very scary indeed.

[ozron]

When I was in college we had an ice storm here in Portland that closed a lot of the city, including the school. (For those of you in So'Cal, picture every surface - the ground, cars, tree branches, power lines - literally encased in 1-3 inches of ice.) It was a Friday, and since there was no power on campus I decided I'd just spend the weekend at home. It was just a four-hour drive up the Columbia River Gorge, right? It then took almost an hour to break my car out of its ice-cocoon.

Of course the weather moves from Portland east into the gorge. I encountered black ice the first half of the trip. I spun out a number of times, each time avoiding ending up in a ditch on the median, although once I did find myself staring at the oncoming headlights of a semi. After passing The Dalles, the worst is generally over. This time, however, I was dealing with an incredibly thick fog. I actually couldn't see the side of the road through the fog, even if it hadn't been freezing on my windshield as I drove. At one point I was reduced to driving very slowly, my door open, following the line painted down the middle of the highway. THAT'S how I missed my exit. I did realize my mistake fairly quickly and backed up on the shoulder.

My usual four-hour trip took almost nine hours that night. It was made even more nerve-wracking by the realization that I had told no one in Portland that I was leaving, and no one at home knew I was coming.

If anything had happened, I wouldn't have been found until the spring thaw!

[Gemini Cricket]

In a news story I read, it talked about how there's no correlation between use of cell phones while driving and accidents. I disagree. I have witnessed many close calls due to cellphone use behind the wheel. Many were not because of me.

[Prudence]

The time I was headed to work and apparently did something to enrage someone else on the freeway and they repeatedly tried to sideswipe my car and run me off the road into a large retaining wall (right before the 520 exit heading northbound on I-5) at freeway speed.

[Kevy Baby]

(I have told this story previously on MousePad)

Mine wasn't a close call for me, but witnessing a car lose control and slam into the center divider at full speed (lotsa sparks - holy crud!)

The scariest part was when Susan was taking care of the injured person and I realized that this darkened car was still half-way in the far right lane (and not at all visible with no lights around). To insure Susan wasn't killed or hurt, I went a ways up the freeway waving cars over. Took a while to wind down from that experience.

You can read the whole account in my post on MousePad (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=28411).

[alphabassettgrrl]

Kevy, I came up on a car like that - dark, crashed, in the center divider and the closest lane, at night. I saw something on the right shoulder which confused me. Turned out to be a person dressed all in black waving a tiny flashlight at cars (presumably to confuse them and slow them down). Glad to have a cell phone at that point.

Later that same drive I came up on a car stopped half on the right shoulder half in the right lane, on a connector from one freeway to another. Both had already been reported to CHP, but that's ok. As far as I know they were single-car incidents so nobody else got hurt.

[NickO'Time]

Being literally sandwhich-ed between Two cars in Modesto after a Record producer fell asleep at the wheel at 40 mph while I was waiting for the light to turn green. My friends car was totaled. I had a little whiplash and some cuts and bruises.
The worst one was when I was 15, I was riding home on my "beater" bike from a friends house in Modesto and I was physically beaten by a person who felt I shouldn't have gone around a car on the street.
The sidewalk wasn't clear so I carefully went around the car. He literally got out and physically punched me. I made no gestures, no movements of my arms.
I went to the hospital. The DA and police never found them. Thankfully the bank employees and KO93 employees came out and helped me to the ambulance.
I could tell you more stories of my riding experiences back then. These days it's about the traffic and not so much the stereotypical aggitated- I hate cyclists in gay-clothes kind of person.

[Kevy Baby]

You reminded me of one (of MANY) bicycling accidents in my youth.

One time I was riding to my girlfriends house and I only had sandals on (yeah, I know: stupid). Somehow, my foot rolled forward on the peddle when the peddle was at the bottom of the stroke. My foot got trapped wedged between the peddle and the ground (due to the sudden imbalance, my other foot came of the other peddle). I was going quite fast, so the tip of my big toe got ground down by about a 1/2". Since there was nothing around besides closed businesses (it was industrial area). all I could do was ride the remaining mile and a half to the girlfriend's house.

Yummy!

[lashbear]

My foot got trapped wedged between the peddle and the ground .... I was going quite fast, so the tip of my big toe got ground down by about a 1/2"

:eek: The same thing happened to the Stoat while he was wearing a thong - he has the scar to prove it !

[Alex]

Please tell me this use of the word "thong" is what, in Hawaii, would be called a slipper and most other places a flip flop.

[Stan4dSteph]

Please tell me this use of the word "thong" is what, in Hawaii, would be called a slipper and most other places a flip flop.That's my guess. In New Zealand, they are called "jandals," which is a concatenation of Japanese sandals.

[Mousey Girl]

I grew up calling them thongs. Nickolas calls them flipflops.

[Kevy Baby]

:eek: The same thing happened to the Stoat while he was wearing a thong - he has the scar to prove it !Was he wearing the official LoT thong (http://www.cafepress.com/lotswag.32748950)?

http://images.cafepress.com/product/32748950_240x240_Back.jpg

[Nephythys]

* the hood of my car coming loose and flipping up backwards onto my windshield at highway speeds.

* my driver side rear tire exploding at highway speeds

* zoning out and wondering why there were cars crossing in front of me only to realize I had a red light, they had the green- and it was too late to stop. I fly between one car that had gone through and one that saw me coming and stopped. I got through and flipped out and pulled over to collect myself.

[sleepyjeff]

Driving a rented U-Haul truck thru a blizzard/Ice Storm from Portland, Oregon to Gig Harbor Washington.......

The whole trip was white knuckle action.....it felt kinda like a bad video game with cars and trucks periodically skidding off the road in a kinda slow-motion ballet.

The highlight of the trip was going across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge...couldn't see but a few feet in front of me but visibility was quite clear looking down:eek: At about the half-way point on my journey across the bridge I remembered just what bridge I was crossing....my knuckles got even whiter at that point. Long story short, I made it there and back and the whole trip only took me 19 hours(normally a round trip between Portland and Gig Harbor would take about 5 - 6)

[BarTopDancer]

Yesterday on the 15 the wind was blowing so hard that all the high profile vehicles were swaying as if they were going to flip. Cars were swerving within their lanes.

Very scary.

[lashbear]

Please tell me this use of the word "thong" is what, in Hawaii, would be called a slipper and most other places a flip flop.

That's my guess. In New Zealand, they are called "jandals," which is a concatenation of Japanese sandals.

I grew up calling them thongs. Nickolas calls them flipflops.

Was he wearing the official LoT thong (http://www.cafepress.com/lotswag.32748950)?

Sorry Kevy, Alex et. al. were right !

One of these:
http://www.designbrasil.org.br/portal/imagens/publicador/216121135havainas0.jpg


NOT one of these:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i88/mickiki/borat-green-thong-swimsuit.jpg

[Kevy Baby]

Driving a rented U-Haul truck thru a blizzard/Ice Storm from Portland, Oregon to Gig Harbor Washington.......You reminded me of another one: we were moving Susan's sister up to Oregon a couple of years ago, using Susan's van to tow a UHaul trailer. Somehow, Susan ended up driving as we were going through the mountains of Lake Shasta. Since she has never driven a trailer before, she started have some serious issues as we hit the downhill side :eek:

I took over the driving as soon as she was able to find a turnout.