Near-miss car crashes

[Kevin]

Have one of these recently?

My work takes me to downtown OKC every day (and I live there). It's not a huge downtown area, and most of the city is suburban-esque. That means that when drivers find themselves on one-way streets with signal lights every block, they drive like hsti.

A couple of weeks ago, I was crossing through an intersection, I had another car next to me on my right. A third car comes (as my father would put it) "barrel-assing" through the intersection and plows into the car on my right. I take slight evasive action and come out unscathed.

I have one of these types of experiences almost monthly. Oklahoma drivers are great in the suburbs and on the interstates -- polite and considerate people for the most part. In our downtown area, they are just clueless...

[AGDee]

I would say I have at least one a week commuting to Detroit.

However, I've always laughed at the term "near-miss", which I usually hear in relations to planes, because to me, if it's nearly a miss, then it was a hit... Just one of those phrases that make no sense. (Not attacking the poster, just that term).

[honeychile]

That's the main reason I don't like to drive in Chicago! I've learned that every city has its own sense of "traffic rules". Here, when at a stop light, waiting to make a left hand turn, the first car usually gets the "bye" and gets to move. That does not happen in Chicago.

Today, though, I saw the results of a 4-car accident. Nasty, nasty wreckage, including one speeding ambulance, one with lights, but no siren, and two waiting to see if they could get the others out. My heart goes out to them.

[USCTKE]

in high school I had a tire blow out on my one afternoon leaving school my car spun around 2 or 3 times in the middle of the road before I finally came to a stop in the ditch on the other side of the road. The weirdest thing was right before it happened I could have sworn there was a car coming in the other direction...I dont know what happened but I came out of it OK...almost gave the old guy that was working in his yard a heart attack though when he saw it happen.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by AGDee
However, I've always laughed at the term "near-miss", which I usually hear in relations to planes, because to me, if it's nearly a miss, then it was a hit... Just one of those phrases that make no sense.

Me too. The English language has some really strange phrases.

Denver drivers can be pretty bad -- but that makes sense because almost everyone here is from somewhere else -- at least originally. And just about everyone else complains about how bad the drivers in their city are.

[KSigkid]

When you drive in Boston, this kind of stuff happens all too often. There not only seems to be an utter disregard for the rules of the road around here, but it seems like people try to be as obnoxious and dangerous a driver as possible.

[DeltAlum]

My unscientific sample (the many places I've driven) says that Boston is the absolute worst.

Traffic laws there are considered suggestions at best.

[epchick]

I haven't had a near miss car crash,

but I have had a near death car crash.

It was the Monday of spring break and I was coming home. It was like around 5:45p.m. when the sun is really bright, and there was a lot of traffic, so i took a side street. BAD IDEA. There ended up being 2 huge mounds of rock in the middle of the street and as a result of the sun, they were pretty much invisible. I just kept going and ended up plowing into the rock mound and launching my car in the air. My car rolled on it side and then skidded to a stop.

All my windows busted, and i had to try and lift up my car a little, so i could squeeze out of a hole in my driver side window.

Turns out that the company that had the rocks were at fault b/c there were no signs out...PLUS its a city ordinance that says they can't have rocks out in the middle of the street.

[DSTRen13]

I didn't miss ... I hit! But I lived, and didn't hit anyone else, just the wall, so that's good, right? (My poor car, it didn't live ... )

I was driving on the icky ATL interstate in the rain at ~ 6AM and hydroplaned, spun three times across like five lanes and hit the median It was very good there was no one else stupid enough to be out driving in the rain at 6AM on a Saturday morning ...

Poor car

[aephi alum]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
My unscientific sample (the many places I've driven) says that Boston is the absolute worst.

Traffic laws there are considered suggestions at best.

There's a reason they call Massachusetts drivers "Massholes" ...

I've had more than a few near misses, and unfortunately, a few non-misses. Scariest near-miss: I was on the interstate, and it was snowing, but not quite sticking. I was doing maybe 50, and being passed right and left by folks doing 70 or 80 despite the snow. I came around a corner and there were at least 40 cars spun out, scattered all over the pavement, median, and right shoulder. People were standing around on the median and the shoulder, swapping insurance information and tending to injuries. I had no choice - I slammed on my brakes, the anti-lock brakes promptly locked , and I narrowly averted becoming the driver of car # 41.

I finished my drive home at a much more sedate 30 or so.

[AznSAE]

i didnt miss either, lol.

i had an accident with an 18-wheeler about 8 years ago. the dummy didnt even stop (probably because he didnt feel the hit), but it was like 5 in the morning and too dark to see anything.

[PhoenixAzul]

I was in Glasgow, Scotland this past week, and a mate and I were on the bus coming back from hill walking, and the bus nearly SQUASHED this limo. The limo pulled out in front and the SLAMMED on its breaks...we skidded a good couple of feet and narrowly, NARROWLY missed the limo. We would have absolutely killed it had we hit it. Yikes.

[KSigkid]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
My unscientific sample (the many places I've driven) says that Boston is the absolute worst.

Traffic laws there are considered suggestions at best.

From my experience, I'd say L.A. is worse, although Boston is pretty bad.

[ShaedyKD]

I almost got hit today when this bitch in the middle lane decides she's going to just come into my left lane as I'm right next to her. So I lean on my horn and she swerves back into the middle lane. I pass her and I see that she's laughing and talking on her cell phone. Real funny bitch.

Just because you have a truck does not mean you can take up 2 lanes of traffic. These Tex-ASSholes think they own the whole road. I swear the lanes here are smaller than anywhere else. Or maybe it could just be the fact that everyone and their mother drives a Ford F-450 and Dodge quad cabs, which is also why this place is so polluted.