They are trying to kill me!?!

Sounds like you need to move to Montana.

if you're donning a helmet, might as get a HANS and a 5-point harness.

foxtrapper wrote: Situational awareness, especially if you are really considering buying a bike. If she can pull out so far that she can stop and you can swing around behind her and continue on through you had several seconds to react, and didn't. The top of her front tire told you almost a second before the rest of the vehicle did that she was coming out. You should have known the guy coming up the onramp was going to merge in. When he came past you, he was obviously going to dive in in front of you. You should have long been prepared for what was coming, and making the room for him. If you can flail your car around that hard, you could also just use the brakes. Thirty through an intersection with a known history of people blowing through it? Sometimes too there are intersections to simply avoid. Even when it's inconvenient to do so. If you're going to ride, you have to ride to survive, if you actually want to survive that is. The same methods apply nicely to cars. Situational awareness, readiness, escape plans, etc.

I knew she was coming out and she had time to get through to the median. I did not expect her to stop when she saw me. I had already let off the gas and was covering the brake pedal to give her more time. She blocked both east bound lanes. Nothing else I could have done besides hit her broadside. NOT MY FAULT.

He did not come past me, he got along side of me and tried to make a sandwich out of all of us, he never even saw me. I had been slowing to drop far enough back behind the semi so I had an escape path when I got to the merge. The guy in the pickup behind me wasn't slowing however and was very uncomfortably close to my back bumper. He ducked to the right when it happened and I barely was able to get to the left. It was VERY close. I do not like to get boxed in with no escape path. It was just one of those rare occasions that I was boxed in and was trying to get out.

The speed limit is 45 through that intersection. I was the fourth car in a line. If i would have just hit the brakes she would have hit me in the drivers door. The only flailing the car did was when two tires got off into the wet grass and was on a path to hit a power pole if I didn't get it pointed another direction.

However I do agree with your other points. And I believe that having good situaltional awareness is the only reason no sheetmetal got bent.

I am not saying that I am the perfect driver. I spend a huge amount of time behind the wheel and have not been in an accident in 15yrs when I was 17. It's nothing for me to do over 1500 miles a week. I have a class A cdl and I feel confident that I am more aware of my surroundings than 95% of the non proffesional drivers on road.

I leave for work at 6:15 a.m. and usually don't even have the radio on. I would consider traffic light however that morning it was a little heavier than usual.

I do wheelies and E36 M3 to make sure people know I'm there.