27 Hours of Boredom, 3 Seconds of Terror

[wings&wheels]

Long story short, I was voluntold to drive my Father in Law and his car to Southwest Florida with ~3 days notice. Fine, I like the drive, I have flexibility, I like him and he has a brand new S450.

Just North of Ft Myers, on Rt 75 in the left lane, maybe 80mph. Coming around a sweeping left curve and around the curve appears a nice older copper colored pickup in the left breakdown lane driving against traffic...suddenly we are ~4feet mirror to mirror at maybe 130mph closing speed. All over in maybe 3 seconds. I remember thinking 'if they swerve into me, I'm breaking left'. Luckily they didn't and no one in my field of view stopped excessively short or did anything stupid, well besides the truck driver.

It can happen fast....

 

[GSCJR]

Glad you were alert while driving for long periods of time and no one was hurt or killed. Well done!

 

[Trav]

Geisterfahrer, common in Germany and very dangerous. Almost daily on the radio were (Ghost driver) warnings.
You are a lucky man!

 

[ecotourist]

Isn't it the truth. So much of driving is routine and then every once in a while there is some sort of really dangerous episode.

I've had 3 or 4 close calls in almost 60 years of driving. Any one of them could have gone the other way.

PS That's how they describe anesthesiology - 99% boredom and 1% terror.

 

[CharBaby]

I'm glad all is well. I alway pray before heading out and ask for traveling mercy for ourselves and others.

 

[Snagglefoot]

In the mountains going up it’s common here to have two lanes going up and a single lane coming down on a undivided highway in order to pass loaded semis. Dirt bags often cross the single line to pass in the downward lane. Totally illegal. They’ll do it even on a zero visibility sweeping turn.

 

[SHOZ]

Isn't it the truth. So much of driving is routine and then every once in a while there is some sort of really dangerous episode.

I've had 3 or 4 close calls in almost 60 years of driving. Any one of them could have gone the other way.

PS That's how they describe anesthesiology - 99% boredom and 1% terror.

I woke up when under the gas once. Heard the Drs talking about their golf game. When they realized I was awake, they were in terror!

 

[97K15004WD]

Long story short, I was voluntold to drive my Father in Law and his car to Southwest Florida with ~3 days notice. Fine, I like the drive, I have flexibility, I like him and he has a brand new S450.

Just North of Ft Myers, on Rt 75 in the left lane, maybe 80mph. Coming around a sweeping left curve and around the curve appears a nice older copper colored pickup in the left breakdown lane driving against traffic...suddenly we are ~4feet mirror to mirror at maybe 130mph closing speed. All over in maybe 3 seconds. I remember thinking 'if they swerve into me, I'm breaking left'. Luckily they didn't and no one in my field of view stopped excessively short or did anything stupid, well besides the truck driver.

It can happen fast....

I wonder how a "self driving" car would have handled that situation. Especially if the oncoming car had blue lights flashing

 

[GMFan]

Sometimes “don’t panic” is the best course of action. If someone floored the brakes or swerved they could have caused a pile up. An overreaction on someone’s part could have resulted in a bad day.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Yikes.

We have a couple of hwy access points around my area where only a concrete barrier separates the off ramp and the on ramp. It's not uncommon for a visually impaired driver to get end up driving against traffic.

Example:

Atlanta · Georgia

Georgia

www.google.com

 

[wings&wheels]

Thanks all.

Here is something with this; I believe there were two people in the truck. Now I surely didn't focus on the passengers, but I am pretty sure there were two. Also, this section of 75 has no grass median, wide breakdown lanes on both sides of the road and cutouts in the guardrail every mile or so. The median is essentially a wide concrete strip bisected by the guardrail, which this truck was hugging closely.

I think this was a case of "Hey, lets do this"....

 

[Kira]

above was said, " Dirt bags oft cross the single line to pass in the downward lane. Totally illegal. They’ll do it even on a zero visibility sweeping turn."
Yup. The stupidity people exhibit is immeasurable sometimes.

A family did that on a state highway near here the year we graduated high school. A mate had the misfortune of striking the wrong way car (it had stopped) killing an occupant. The newspaper published HIS name and he got odd threatening phone calls.

 

[wings&wheels]

Yikes.

We have a couple of hwy access points around my area where only a concrete barrier separates the off ramp and the on ramp. It's not uncommon for a visually impaired driver to get end up driving against traffic.

Example:

Atlanta · Georgia

Georgia

www.google.com

I've driven that ramp to family in Buckhead!

 

[WylieCoyote]

This exact scenario happened to me in 2001 driving to Austin on I35. He was so close that I could see the lines on his 80+ year old face. OLD F-150 approaching on my left, going at least 60. It came out of nowhere, because nobody ahead of me reacted, and I decided in that split second that I would also not react. I just gripped the wheel a little tighter and waited to see if I was going to need to make a move. He kept his line, I kept mine, and I exhaled as he appeared in my rear view mirror. Kudos to the folks ahead of me for not getting crazy for no reason. I think today, there would be all sorts of brake locking and wheel jerking, resulting in crashes that didn't even involve the offending wrong-way driver. It was a long, tiring drive to Austin, and that was just the adrenaline shot I needed.

 

[Bud]

I woke up when under the gas once. Heard the Drs talking about their golf game. When they realized I was awake, they were in terror!

Man, were their scores that bad.

 

[bdcardinal]

I've been on that exact stretch of road so I can imagine how scary that would be.

 

[ecotourist]

I woke up when under the gas once. Heard the Drs talking about their golf game. When they realized I was awake, they were in terror!

The only time doctors will be chatting during surgery is when things are either going really well or during the wind up (ie closing). It in no way implies they aren't paying attention or not working away. When things aren't going so well there is either nothing being said or only a few requests (scalpel, hemostat, suture).

When you think about it, don't most people chat during their day to day work. Many surgeons do too.

 

[CharlesInCharge]

Yeah, I've had about a dozen moments on the road where I had to check my shorts afterward. Most of them were winter icy road situations, where "slow-and-steady" and staying off the brakes meant life or death.

I recall a few years ago, I think it was a drunk woman with a minivan full of kids went the wrong way and everyone died in the head-on collision. Scary stuff. Found the story. 8 killed in two vehicles, including many kids. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8249454&page=1

Diane Schuler, Wrong-Way Highway Driver Who Killed 8 Had 10 Drinks, Was High​

Toxicology on driver in NY crash that killed eight reveals alcohol, marijuana.
By LEE FERRAN July 2009

"
Aug. 4, 2009 — -- A New York mom had at least 10 drinks and smoked a large amount of marijuana before driving five children the wrong way down a highway and crashing head on into an SUV, investigators said today.

Diane Schuler, 36, was killed in the July 26 collision on New York's Taconic State Parkway that also took the lives of her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces who were riding in her van as well as all three men who were in the SUV. Her 5-year-old son was the lone survivor of the crash.

Schuler had a blood alcohol content of .19, more than double the legal limit, and was also "impaired by marijuana," according to a statement released by state attorney Janet Difiore citing a toxicology report by the Westchester County medical examiner."

 

[Job]

I don’t think even collision front avoidance would be good here. Not sure, it’s a new world with robotics making decisions. I think it may react and brake or swerve right.

 

[ecotourist]

Here is something with this; I believe there were two people in the truck.

I'm not surprised you didn't really see who was in the truck.

During one of my close calls a driver braked late at a red light and came to a full stop right in front of me as I bore down on him/her at 50 MPH. I looked where I needed to go, never touched the brakes, did a quick "moose test" maneuver and drove off thinking, "I'm alive, I'm alive". I never saw the driver or the car I had almost T-boned (at least I think it was a car).

If I had T-boned him at that speed we would probably both have been killed. And if I had gone off the road to avoid him/her there was a steep bank with a hard stop at the bottom where I would probably have been killed.

My good handling BMW probably saved my life that day, and his/hers too.

Driving instructors say a key to not crashing is look where you want to go. They drum that message into you on "Canada's Worst Drivers" and I just did it automatically.