Aces Full of Links

OMG ... I am so happy you guys are ok!!!

Is Maggie ok too? Did the girls realize what almost happened?

HUG EVERYONE!

God, that's scary. I'm thankful that luck or fate or something prevented me from losing friends tonight.

The girls are OK. Maggie is OK. After being angry and realizing there was nothing we could really do about what happened (the guy was long gone after we collected ourselves) I felt pretty calm.

Maggie said it was a sedan and I'm not sure it even affected the girls. M said "it was a white car" when we asked if she'd seen it, and seemed pretty calm.

Weird. And scary. Later in the night, I kept feeling like cars were going to come at me from the right. Adrenaline does weird things to your brain and memory.

Whew!

Yes, that is unnerving.

Margaret and Sarah and Bren had a close call - drunken driver - about 30 years ago. A few inches one way or the other and I hate to think of the results. As it was, the car was clobbered but they were ok.

I know the feeling of helplessness you describe. It happened to me four years ago when my car was totalled as I came home from UMD. I was on Drift Road, it had been snowing lightly for about an hour. The roads were slicked. A guy came around the corner, got me on the driver's side and sent me off the road. I missed running head-on into a utility pole by less than a foot - a pole I never saw.

Things happen so fast - so totally unexpectedly - and the differences is just inches.

The part about Margaret saying you put on the brakes - or took some evasive action that you don't recall - is interesting. I totally blanked on several minutes - not from a head injury, just from what? The experience? I don't know. I called Bren twice to tell her I was OK. Though the two calls were minutes apart, I did not remember making the first one. These things throw you into another gear. Maybe parts of your brain that are supposed to be in touch with one another aren't for a while?

Hmmm...sounds like driving in Bahrain.

Seriously, though. Glad to hear you're all okay.

Had similar things happen, and I HATE the feeling of suddenlt obtaining maximum "fight or flight" and just as suddenly having the danger pass. I applaud your ability to think before you answered. I would have probably introduced Liam to some cool new words and then copped a shot to the head from Sarah.

Which would have at least validated my fight or flight condition.

Glad you and your family are safe ((hugs))

About 20 years ago (Jesus, that long ago?) I was in hit going through a green light. I was in a Fiat Spider (little sports car), and a guy in a HUUUUUUUGE Pontiac went through the red from my right. I saw him, nailed the brakes, and tried to go left away from him. He hit me right at the front right wheel, and bent my car like a banana. I eventually rolled to a stop against a light pole. My car was totaled, I had to pop the convertible top off to climb out, since the car was now C shaped. I ripped the radiator off his car, which was now in the middle of the intersection. Fortunately I wore belts, and, besides having all the air knocked out of me, I was ok, just a few welts from the belts.

I was going about 40, and he was too, I guess. My skidmarks went about 100 feet straight, then about another 20 off at 45 degrees. I dread to think what would have happened if I 1) had a passenger, or 2) he came from the other direction and got me on the drivers side.

That's scary James. I'm glad you all came through it relatively unscathed. You're right, it is unsettling.

Oy. That's the sort of thing I would re-live for the rest of my life, complete with all the what-ifs. Glad to hear it was a miss.

Very intense experiences actually do re-wire your brain. In extreme cases you get effects like post traumatic stress syndrome, in which the brain is so deeply imprinted that the person is afflicted with horrible recurring stress triggered by all sorts of things.

On a much smaller scale, this sort of thing is just going to make me more careful going through intersections for a while. Especially when you have the green light and you're crossing a long, straight highway.

I gave some advice a while back about being careful when you're the first one through an intersection after the light changes (because of cars running lights). The same thing applies pretty much all the time to crossing long, straight roads, mainly because of the speeds people are driving on those roads makes an accident that much worse if it happens to you.

We're all safe and fine. It was a close call. What I'll be thinkign as I drive is "how can I prevent this from ever happening?" It's a natural attempt to take control. I can be careful crossing highways, but how much control do we really have?

Glad that you guys are ok.

I'm glad you weren't hurt. You probably did take an evasive action without even thinking about it. In an emergency, your body is faster than your brain.

That may be why it's hard to remember things in those circumstances, because it is true about the memory loss. I may or may not have passed out for a moment or two after my accident, but I also don't remember exactly what happened just before. Maybe there's something about a huge jolt of adrenaline that blanks out a little bit of your memory. Or maybe it's just that the sensory overload prevents the brain from retaining meaningful information.

I felt the way you describe (seeing cars coming at you) for nearly two years after my last accident. I still get flinchy when driving, sometimes.

Is it possible that the "some sort of white sedan" was a police car who neglected to turn his lights on?

It was definitely not a police car. But it's true, all our memories were somewhat blanked. I'm just fairly confident I would've said, "a police car," rather than "a car," if it had been a black and white, and there were no decals, no special equipment. It was just a car. When James pulled over, I said, "I don't even know what happened." I just have the impression that we were nearly through the intersection, and I have the impression he either braked or swerved, but mostly I just know a car went by very fast and almost hit us. Adrenaline must do something to your memory. I was amazed that I couldn't put together what happened.

I don't think I was in the car when Mommy had that accident. I think she'd dropped me off at school for practice and was either headed home or back to pick me up. I did almost get hit crossing Route 88 once -- I was sitting at the light with a lady on a moped next to me, and our light changed and I started to cross, and she screamed. It was summer and I had the windows down, and when I heard her, I slammed on the brakes. And a guy crossed 88 on the red light. He would've hit me if she hadn't screamed.

When we came home from our excursion, I half-expected to see what debris all over the road, further up route 6. I hope that guy got home without hurting anybody, although I can't say I'd be upset if he'd only hurt himself. It seems to me, and maybe it's that I'm getting older and older, but that drivers are getting worse and worse. I saw a girl blatantly (manicured middle finger out the window) flip off a truck yesterday because she wanted to take a left turn and he went straight through the intersection (opposite direction). He actually stopped his semi and stared at her -- I think he was stunned. I was stunned. What is wrong with people??

Oops, that's "white" debris, not "what" debris. I'm not still stunned, just tired. :-P

I don't think it's your imagination. I think drivers really are getting worse and worse. More distracted, and more impatient.

Ditto, dangerous driving hardly seems to faze people anymore, which I think allows for it to flourish. I honk my horn at scary drivers -I think they should know I find it objectionable, and *hope* it discourages them from doing it again.

I'm so glad you all came away unscathed.

I often think of James' comment about being the first car through an intersection, when I'm driving.

My issue with driving is pedestrians and drivers are my issue as a pedestrian; because everyone has a different approach. You have to read people and try to anticipate their actions, which is just rife with problems. I don't like cars to stop for me to cross unless I'm in a crosswalk; I'd rather wait until there's a break in traffic or find a crosswalk.

But this driver/pedestrian problem developed after I was struck by a car, while in a crosswalk. I never saw the car coming (because it was passing on the far side of a cement-mixer that had stopped to let me cross) and got thrown. Adrenaline was in full effect after that. The only thing I said to the woman, who hit me, when she came to see if I was alright was, "Can you get my shoe, it's up the road?" The impact had thrown one of my sneakers 100 ft up the road; her car, I'm told, was going about 35-40mph. I managed to walk away with only giant bruises, lots of inflammation and a minor concussion. I landed on my hip; I guess *womanly* hips can come in handy for the non-childbearing!

That's miraculous, Sharon. And it's good to know that my hips might be good for something.

Near misses really frighten me, but what's even scarier is that the people who cause them often seem not to be affected by them at all. Are they really that stupid and/or oblivious?

It is easy to be oblivious and heartless when drivers can seal themselves inside air conditioned boxes and avoid dealing with the people directly affected by their bad driving. I can be as guilty of that as anyone.

Mike, we all have those tendencies, but I give you more credit than your statement implies.

I doubt you've ever passed a bunch of cars on the right specifically to run a red light at full speed. It doesn't seem "you." So, maybe NOT QUITE as much as ANYONE, precisely. ;)

Sharon: I'm glad you remember that post. I think it's really true, that the first one through is in more danger. I think it really reduces your risk a significant amount to think about that when you're the first one at a red light, waiting for it to change.

But clearly there are other dangerous situations, too.

Funny that your story about the cement mixer is similar to what happened to us. We couldn't really see the speeding car because it was behind a line of stopped cars.

Geez, I'm glad you guys are all OK.

I thought the same thing Julie did. Was it an unmarked police car (often white sedans) that had triggered the light to change then flown past the waiting traffic thinking that by the time it got to the intersection it would be clear?

if so it doesn't excuse him from driving dangerously but offers some explaination. He (or she) should still have had lights and a siren if he was going to try and pull a move like that.

In order to trigger the light to change, they have to have their lights on, but yeah, I was thinking maybe an unmarked car. Although, I'm not sure if that even works locally. You need a special strobe light for that to work, and I've noticed that ambulances in New Bedford (at least) can't change a light, so it's not universal.

No way for us to know for absolute sure.

What I CAN tell you for sure is that If he was timing it, he was way off. He ran a red that 2 or 3 cars had time to make it through, from either side.

It's a good thing nobody had tried to come the other way, either.

Holy shit, JP. I'm glad everyone's OK.

I told my fiance that I am going to look for a website on driving because we really believe it is getting worse and so I typed in "are drivers getting worse or is it just my imagination?"
This is the web site that popped up for that. I am glad to see We are not the only ones who notice this. Every day we are witnessing some really dangerous or stupid move by a driver on the road. And we don't even use the interstate to and from work and our jobs are not far from our home. I don't even know where to begin, I can't even explain some of the bizarre stunts drivers have pulled when I see them on the road but they really scare me. Plus the fact that I have a 16 y/o daughter and younger son that I have to worry about driving someday. I'm glad my daughter is waiting til she is almost 18 til she drives. Your story is very scary and I've experienced similiar stuations on the road. Since a couple of weeks ago I could give you a list of incidences that have occured before our eyes while we were driving. and in fact I will because they shook me up enough to remember them. here they are:

while we were going to the mall we were at an intersection going north. a driver from the right intersection in the left turn going south was in such a hurry he ended up not making it pass the median and started coming our way in the opposite direction and he was quick to jump on the median to avoid a head-on but there were poles alongside the median so he could not get out on the side of the road he was supposed to be on.

I see more drivers darting out across a busy road and cutting right in front of someone and I witnessed one accident because of an action like this one a week ago.

I see more drivers at intersections that are in the left turn lane, turn on red, sometimes seven or eight cars will continue to turn left on red while the traffic that has the right of way cannot move forward and has to come to a complete halt to wait on the illegal actions by the other drivers. sometimes it is so bad that by the time you can move on your green light it is almost yellow again

And I'm not crazy about drivers creeping up on me and being a few inches from my car because they are impatient for me to move out of their way so they can go across. This one always startles me.
And I go the speed limit or a little above to keep up with traffic. There is a difference in creeping out to cross and "creeping up"

I also witness every single day, drivers that are speeding up to a stop sign and you're wondering if they're going to stop at all hoping they don't meet your side door with their front bumper
s-l-o-w-d-o-w-n

I see more drivers backing up in parking lots and not looking behind them to see if anyone is there.

I see drivers speeding up in parking lots so if a child runs out from their parking spot and into their path, I will say no more.

And yesterday We were diving in town at about 40mph ( the speed limit ) and this driver in a big van forgot to look over his right side and decided to literally take my place in my lane so in order for me to avoid my driver door from meeting his passenger door I had to swerve into the right lane as I was obviously in the middle lane. Good thing there was a right lane and nobody was there, or else who knows.

I had a driver pass me on a sharp c shaped curve that is such a bad curve that they put road bumps there and posted lighted signs that read 15 mph and he decided that my 20 mph was too slow so he passed me on the oncoming traffic lane. My kids were with me I was so angry that I must have blown my horn for 5 minutes straight.

There are too many other things to mention. I am trying to pinpoint the reason for this. You know, the reason why drivers are becoming worse. I have narrowed it down to two things. cell phones isn't one of them even though they are known to cause problems. It is either this generation of young drivers who are more inconsiderate and risky or we can blame it on the present economical fears and financial worries and burdens in our country.
The reason I say this is because distractions go along with not paying attention. And so A
mericans are very distracted at this time with high gas prices, lower wages and higher living costs, which is a huge problem in our country right now.
This kind of pressure causes a severe feeling of insecurity and affects our mental state. You start to go into the "me" mode and become obsessed with your own worries and problems and it appears to the rest of society that you are rude and inconsiderate, which is what my fiance keeps blasting drivers for.
He says that everyone is worried about themselves and where they have to be. I think he's right. Not only are drivers more inconsiderate and careless but we have also experienced poor customer service more lately. People are making more mistakes ( for example when we changed our phone plan and the following month it didn't change at all) I ordered a pizza the other night and when I got there to pick it up I waited six minutes before someone even came to the front counter and when she did, she didn't even apologize, she just said "what is your name?"
I don't remember people acting this way when I was a kid and I am only 36 y/o.
Not to get off the subject of bad drivers but I believe there is a link here. My fiance and I live comfortably but even those who do, have in the back of their mind "what if?" We all have insecurities and it seems they are taking over.

What do you think?

Today, I had a driver slow down to a near stop at a 2 lane green light in front of me in the left lane, blocking the road. Then, she rolled forward and straddled the line for a few seconds as the light turned yellow. I stayed behind her bacause I had no clue what she was doing. She weaved toward one lane, then back toward the other.

Next, when the light turned red she crossed over fully into the right lane and ran the light.

So she sailed off, leaving me at the red light after quite a performance.

I've never understood why drivers aren't regularly retested every X number of years. To me some things in life are worth the extra taxes. We hear calls for mandatory tests on the elderly every time a retiree scatters people at a farmer's market but periodic tests are not a bad idea for drivers of any age.

AARP objects strongly to the idea of age-based retesting. (Of course, every time you re-test, you're older)

Here's a link that talks about age-based testing and related info.