That coulda ruined my weekend

[Silver Penguin]

Wow - that is one scary story. Kudos to you and your sharp reactions that saved your life and limbs. I do agree that being a motorcyclist helps one to be a better driver.

Case in point - I'm driving a full sized truck along Pacific Coast Highway just before dawn. The biker radar has alerted me to a truck waiting to turn left onto the main road. Sure enough, an F150 barreling along the main road isn't enough to deter him, and he pulled out. At the last minute, he baled and stopped in the median. But...... the median wasn't wide enough for his big Chevy truck. He had half my lane too. A swerve was ruled out due to traffic in the right lane and a raised median to the left. I hammered the brakes and stopped with just inches to spare. Having been aware of his presence, his idiot factor and easing off the gas in case he did something stupid, I was saved.

But....... the 16yr old driver behind me was out to lunch, checking out the waves that he was about to surf. He didn't even brake and his small truck hit my stopped truck, at about 60mph. The Chevy driver took off. Both mine, and the kid's truck were totaled. The bed of my truck was pushed forwards into the cab. My seat snapped and I was thrown into the back seat on the rebound.

But...... that's not all. The next day, I was very cautiously driving a rental truck. The green arrow showed, for me to turn left across a major intersection. I was the third vehicle in line for the turn. The first went through OK then as the car in front of me rolled forward, I did my biker scan of the intersection. Biker radar told me to hold up and watch the stake bed truck. I hung back, and watched him t-bone the car in front of me.

Watch out guys - they are everywhere.

Jill

 

[rogdeb]

Just glad your 6th sense was working for ya Chick

 

[fjrchik]

That was a close one...two close ones. :dribble: Good thing..not on the cell phone...hard to emergency steer one handed..or in a conversation.And yes...I think motorcyclists may be more trained than normal to work defensively/actively in emergencies...Glad you made it out okay...bet it took a little while to get to sleep 'till all the adrenalin wound down.

When I got home, I was completely exhausted. Went right to bed and slept like a rock! The adrenaline definitely did me in.

Wow - that is one scary story. Kudos to you and your sharp reactions that saved your life and limbs. I do agree that being a motorcyclist helps one to be a better driver.Biker radar told me to hold up and watch the stake bed truck. I hung back, and watched him t-bone the car in front of me.Jill

Biker radar... I like that Jill! That's exactly it.

 

[Bounce]

Thank goodness!

+1 on the no cell phones while driving. Your ability to focus 100% on driving saved your life!

People sometimes look at me oddly when I go off on cell phones while driving. This is the perfect example of why good things happen to those who keep driving as "Job #1".

 

[RayW]

Biker radar... I like that Jill! That's exactly it.

Good friend of mine calls it "Road Clairvoyance®". Funny story of his experience with it if you're interested, right here at this link... https://www.mcbroom.biz/blog/2006-11-10.htm Redneck idiot got what was comin' to him.

( I know..there's a proper way to do the link....but already past my bedtime and I'd have to look it up...yadda yadda )

Ray

 

[raclow]

WOW!!! There are idiots no matter where you live.

Glad to hear you are OK and avoided a bad accident.

Way to stay alert. It comes with Motorcycle riding experience.

Take care.

 

[DocDanDC]

Good thinkin', to watch for the 2nd car! I'm sure all the FJR riding has paid off and made you more aware while driving the car. Glad you are OK.

 

[Nightshift]

That was a great story. Glad u made it through. Excellent defensive driving.I would have chased that clown who almost T-boned u.

Friday night, got off work, 10:15ish pm, uptown Dallas. Heading out of parking garage, I tried to call mom and dad. no luck, line is busy. had just mailed them a copy of my will, wanted to see if it had arrived yet. my girl Shajuana, is behind me, with 1 car in between us. She lives near me and we both work second shift so we often head out of work together. Heading through uptown Dallas towards Woodall Rogers on some nice, quiet side streets. We always go this way, quicker than the lights on McKinney. Heading down Routh, got through the light at McKinney, now about 2 blocks down from there. Looking at the intersection ahead of me, where Routh has the right of way and the side streets have stop signs, I see a white Expedition COMPLETELY blow it's stop sign and barrel right through the intersection! WTF??? Unbelievable!! This is the second time I've seen this happen this year, so I let off the gas. He/She clearly missed the fact that there was a stop sign there and was going over 30, no doubt about it. I has about 2/3 of the block left to go before I was at the intersection myself. 2 seconds or less. easily. that SUV woulda killed me. no doubt about it. its HUGE compared to my G6 GTP coupe. toast. Chik is done. pretty scary right? well i'm not done yet kids.

So I let off the gas after thinking, HOLY SHIT IDIOT!! Try paying attention next time! Then I think, ya know, he could have a friend coming with him. May not know the roads. May blow it too since the leader did. Now I'm almost there. Still slowing down. Get into the intersection and look left. YEP! I KNEW IT!! ****!!! Here comes an Infiniti G36 coupe right at me! Headlights in my eyes as I'm looking left, blowing the stop sign. Time to save your own ass Chik! This car is gonna T-bone you, right into your body, driver side. Same way Grandpa died. ****! I swing a little wide to the right in the middle of the intersection, hoping to avoid a direct hit to my person. Go ahead, hit my rear quarter panel, I can live with that. I'm already thinking that a G36 isn't gonna kill me, but will definitely jack up my weekend. As I turn my head back to the front, I now realize that I'm headed straight into a parked car on the other side of the intersection! OH friggin great! I may avoid getting T-boned and then nail this innocent car. Wonderful! I had hit the gas to get past the G36, now I'm slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting this parked Honda Accord coupe. I pull hard to the left! And I mean HARD! While breaking, the car didn't wanna turn especially easy. I missed that Accord by a baby's breath! I have no damn clue how I didn't hit that car. That was actually a closer potential collision than with the G35. My front end was so close to it, I didn't think I could avoid it.

Once I straighten out the car and get out of the middle of Routh, I realize that I made it through it. NO damage, no accident. I can't believe it!!! I called Shajuana. She saw it all. She was trying to call me. We went to the upcoming stop sign and just stopped and talked for a minute. I couldn't breathe. I was turning red on my neck and throat. Adrenaline I guess. That was absolutely the scariest thing that has EVER happened to me. And y'all know me, I ride motorcycle. ALOT! I get taken out almost daily on the way to work. This trumped that big time! So here's all the what if's: What if I had been 2 seconds faster leaving? Dead by SUV. What if I had gotten ahold of mom and dad and been on the phone with them? Crashed by G36, no doubt. Would have been too distracted and reactions would have been slower. Shajuana was amazed by my quick reaction to all this. 3 potential crashes within 3 seconds easily, probably less. I drove like a freakin race car driver and made it through. I know my motorcycle skills came into play here big time. I did panic because of the threat to my body but also did what I had to, to get out safely. Thank god I have a great handling sports car. If I would have been driving something bigger, I would have hit that Accord for sure.

I've had close calls in the past, sure. But somehow this one scared me to the core. I had a hard time getting home and keeping my mind on the road. I wonder if the driver feels bad about what coulda happened. Shajuana said she could see them look back the stop sign after they passed it so I'm assuming they knew they did wrong. I wonder if alcohol was a factor. I wonder if the Expedition was with the G36.

I won't be forgetting this anytime soon, unfortunately.