That was us today.
Waiting for a red light to turn green. The light was allowing cars to exit from the interstate onto the road that we were on.
We were the third or so car back.
A silver Nissan Z convertible exited the highway. Due to the cars in front of us, couldn't see exactly what happened, but a second later we saw him hop the inside curb and perfectly nail a tree--hard enough to fold up the hood.
Two dudes popped out the car and seemed to okay if not happy with the situation.
Artwork for your enjoyment. (X marks the spot.)
My younger son did something like that long time ago trying to drift on the on-ramp. Turned left, gassed it, lost control and hit the inside guard rail. He called Mom to say he hit a puddle. Little did he know Mom was just a mile from him and the truth came out quickly.
During a light rain I paused to allow a car out of a gas station. I was in the righthand turn lane and was going to be blocked while the lady found an opening, but I wasnt in a hurry.
She just... started to pull all the way out. It was perfectly timed for her Explorer to t-bone an early Toyota full size truck. I saw it happening, I laid on the horn as soon as I realized but everything was too slick. She hit him just hard enough to cause him to do a nice 270° spin.
Thankfully no one was hurt.
Pulled in to the gas station and waited for the cops to give a statement.
I have personally witnessed more accidents in the Tampa area than I have anywhere else.
Mr_asa I don't let people out because they seem to take stupid chances when you do and I don't want them blaming me.
Years ago had a guy in a Vette pass us in a hard rain and do a perfect 360 spin just ahead of us. He never left the lane and continued on like nothing happened, driving away from us. Dad and I looked at each other and said "did that guy just...?"
Mr_Asa said:
During a light rain I paused to allow a car out of a gas station. I was in the righthand turn lane and was going to be blocked while the lady found an opening, but I wasnt in a hurry.
She just... started to pull all the way out. It was perfectly timed for her Explorer to t-bone an early Toyota full size truck. I saw it happening, I laid on the horn as soon as I realized but everything was too slick. She hit him just hard enough to cause him to do a nice 270° spin.
Thankfully no one was hurt.
Pulled in to the gas station and waited for the cops to give a statement.
I have personally witnessed more accidents in the Tampa area than I have anywhere else.
In the DE community we call this the good good Samaritan crash. My ex-wife was hit similarly. Never give up the right of way when it's yours. Blocking a driveway is fine. Cars exiting never have the right of way.
Back to the original post. That looks like a moment of came in hot turned the wheel and jumped off the gas and probably onto the brake.
I decline when people try to get me to pull out, and I don't actually have the right of way.
Trailing throttle oversteer is a bitch.
Or on the phone. I once was picking up my daughter from high school and a girl pulled out of the school parking lot turning left and kept on turning until she T-boned the cop directing traffic's car. The cop handled it well, just shook his head, told her to stay put and kept directing traffic.
Another time driving down a 4-lane road in town. Stop light was green for the car (an old corolla) ahead of me and he went through it in the right lane and another car (350Z) turned right onto the road from a side road right in front of the Corolla. The Corolla performed a perfect pit maneuver on the 350Z, the 350Z spun into the median. I stopped and gave a statement. 350Z driver wasn't happy with my statement. Even after I explained to her that it probably was chance that the Corolla lined up perfect with your A-pillar and you probably may not have seen him but fact is he did have the green light and you had red. A couple weeks later I get a gift card for Applebee's from the Corolla driver.
Was the driver the infamous Florida Man?
Yes, please don't let anyone out or go through a gap someone leaves for you.
Don't be a nice guy
When I went through orientation at a trucking company they told us never motion someone out or leave a space for people to pull out. Told us we can be held responsible if an accident happens and the parties involved know that you can be held accountable if they get a license plate or other identifying info. Sorry for thread Jack.
The inverse of this is the incredibly slow motion collision I witnessed.
The setting was St. Petersburg, FL (also known as God's Waiting Room), approx 1989. Lots of elderly drivers there, especially during those years. Sometimes it's a widow who has gotten her license for the first time in her 80s, like the one that backed her car 60 feet across a parking lot to run over a pedestrian at the post office.
In this incident, I followed a car on a left turn signal onto 34th street N, a wide street with three lanes each way, plus a median. As we were making our turns in the left-most lane, another driver made a right turn on the red light from the opposite direction. Instead of making the 90 degree turn to proceed in the same direction as us, she turned about 20 degrees to her right, then very slowly and deliberately proceeded across the outer and middle lanes.
The driver of the latter car helpfully stopped when he saw her coming and sat there without moving as she drove (at slow walking speed) into his passenger door.
The insurance adjuster that called me said, "She said he hit her." I asked him how he could hit her bumper with his door.
Long pause. "Oh, I see what you mean. Thank you." End of call.
I’ve seen a few going the opposite direction on the freeway, and what’s wild is the sound takes longer to reach you, so it’s this weird thing where you’re seeing it happen in the blink of an eye, whoa that hood just buckled! And then the sound (bam!) reaches you.
In reply to CyberEric :
See, around here we just get people driving the wrong way on the interstate or toll roads.
I have seen a fair number over the years. Some I really don't want to remember and others just fender benders. Crashes suck.
I worked at a gas/repair station in Burlington, Vermont at a rotary intersection. Heard a lot of crashes, saw a few. They never look or sound like they do in the movies or on TV.
Mr_Asa said:
In reply to CyberEric :
See, around here we just get people driving the wrong way on the interstate or toll roads.
That's happened here recently a few times. Every time it was a drunk driver.
Jerry
UberDork
7/21/20 7:04 a.m.
turning left onto a highway entrance ramp, had the turn arrow. I'm following a car, minivan behind me. Just as I clear the intersection I see a blur behind me. The minivan got creamed by a kid that stole a new Subaru STI Hyperblue special. I was going up the ramp thinking "did I not have the arrow?". Stopped and backed down the ramp, the car was decimated into a large metal electrical pole. Two stupid teens are rolling around on the ground, police were there fairly quick, I think they were being chased. And I found out later it was all over the Dayton Subaru Facebook group and people were out looking for them.
Some random 20something was screaming in one kid's face "You totaled it man! Look at that! You totaled it!"
I did this in 1978 in a '65 Mustang Fastback with basically a GT350 suspension and Michelin's highest performance tire of the day, the XWX, standard equipment on Ferraris.
I was exiting an interstate, very similar to the description above.
The light was green and I had done this turn many times at 50 to 60 mph. In the dry.
One evening I did it when the road was damp. Rear end was losing grip. I steered into the slid like Patrick Bedard said to do in Car and Driver.
Mistake 2: I ignorantly tapped the brakes. 180 spin. Mistake 3: I released the brake while still moving, traveling backwards. Front wheels, still in the position for a left turn, were now pointed backwards at the guard rail on the left side of the road. Right front fender went into the guard rail.
Some quick bending with a tire iron got the fender off the tire and I drove away.
Mistake 1: Girl friend was in the car smoking weed. I never did any drugs, including weed, but probably got some of the vapors, which reduced my judgement, plus if I wanted to continue to be receiving her "favors" I needed to say nothing.
Plus if the sheriff had shown up to the accident we would both have been arrested for felony possession since in 1978 in Louisiana back then one joint was worth a few years in prison and a permanent felony record.
