Right offhand I can remember fishtailing a 1949 Willys Jeep on the beach and almost flipping. It actually was up on two wheels. Scared the crap out of me, and as a reward I got a ticket for reckless driving. ?????ÿ
Driving some cold night about 15 years ago, slid on a patch of ice while someone else coming from the opposite direction did the same.?ÿ I dove in his lane and he in mine right past each other at about 30-40 mph.?ÿ Took a bit to calm the heart down.?ÿ Ice is no joke.
Yeah, ice creates some bad situations. I was going 70 on an interstate route and didn't realize there was ice until I fishtailed. I managed to stay in the 2 forward lanes, but not by much. Adrenalin for sure.
There was also the time I broke loose on a snowy hill, smaller highway. I really didn't get too excited while I did a 360 right there in the road.
My wife's daughter was taking someone to another city to catch an early morning flight, and hit a deer. The crunch knocked out the battery so all lights went out. Before she got the car off the road another vehicle smashed into the rear. If anybody had been in the back seat they would have been crushed.?ÿ My Olds Cierra looked like an AMC Gremlin. Everybody but the deer walked away.
I was 15 or 16 years old going 60-65 down a rural, single lane gravel road once in a front wheel drive hatchback and drifted into the loose gravel pile in the middle of the road.?ÿ The car started fishtailing, it was a manual transmission so taking my foot off the gas helped slow it some without braking, but I still couldn't get it corrected in time.?ÿ Eventually I had to break because the fishtails were getting worse, and the car pointed at the ditch so that's where I went.?ÿ The ditch was sharply cut but the dirt was soft so when the car smacked into the embankment it wasn't that bad.?ÿ A bunch of weeds where tangled around the bumper and grill but no actual damage to the car, fortunately.?ÿ I was on edge for a while after that.
I was 18 going 80-90 down a 4-lane highway with a grass median when a guy in a pickup (no tailgate) with a riding lawn mower in the back merged into my lane from an entrance ramp.?ÿ The lawnmower rolled out of the bed and landed on the highway in front of me.?ÿ The thing bounced around awkwardly but somehow stayed on its wheels.?ÿ Bolts and other little metal parts were breaking off and scattering down the road.?ÿ I hit the brakes and moved into the left lane while the 60 mph lawnmower veered off into the outer ditch.?ÿ The pickup driver didn't even seem to notice it for a quarter mile or so.
Driving to downtown St. Louis on I-44 to go to a Blues hockey game, as my girlfriend and I go under an overpass, a 6" chuck of asphalt comes through my windshield, right through my rear view mirror.?ÿ I was in the fast lane so I get the truck across 4 lanes to the shoulder.?ÿ My girlfriend was holding her face so I ran around the truck to her side.?ÿ As I'm running around the truck, I looked back at the overpass and I see three dark figures take off running.?ÿ Ended up that she just had a couple of small chards around her eyes.?ÿ The cops came, not much they could do but make a report for my insurance.?ÿ We pulled a u-turn at the next exit and went back to her house to get her car and made it to the game in the second period.?ÿ The next morning, I could hardly move my right arm.?ÿ My bicep was deep purple.?ÿ I was leaning on the center console of my truck when that chunk came through, narrowly missing my face and hitting me in the bicep/shoulder area.?ÿ I guess the adrenaline didn't wear off for awhile!?ÿ Found the chunk of asphalt under the back seat.?ÿ?ÿ
Too many times to count but one that will stay with me forever happened when I was a kid in Alabama, maybe eight years old.?ÿ
I'd been running with an older kid during the summer school break named Dave Walker and he was real trouble. Later on he was sent to a reform school and was one of those people who I wouldn't have been surprised to learn he'd wound up in prison.?ÿ
It has been storming for several days and all the creeks were full and running fast and muddy when Dave and I passed a concrete line drainage ditch with 45 degree walls maybe 20' wide and 8' deep. The channel dumped into the main stream about 100 yards down from where we were. Dave jumped the fence and with me following, we climbed down and started wading across for some stupid reason. He was bigger than I was and half way across the current knocked me off my feet and I went tumbling downstream. Right then a garbage truck passed and one of the black sanitation workers spotted me getting washed toward the main channel. Without hesitating or waiting for that truck to stop, he apparently leaped off the back, jumped the fence and ran ahead and jumped down?ÿ into that ditch just as I was about to get washed into the main creek where I'd have drowned without any doubt. As I tumbled by he grabbed me and pulled me out. I was pretty torn up from all that tumbling over concrete. I will never forget what that man did and there is no way I will ever be able to repay that debt. I'd grown up around racism there and didn't think much of it but that all changed that day. You could say I met my angel that day and he was a black sanitation worker and without him I would not be here.
I was really sick a few weeks before COVID 19 was actually given a name.?ÿ I was down and out for five solid days when I decided I had to get to the office to catch up on the pile of work on my desk.
Driving to the office I was in the fast lane of an interstate doing 80 when I passed out, drifted into the median and slid down the guard rail for a distance before I came to and managed to get the car off the road safely.?ÿ Ihad a small cut on my forehead that took a few staples to close but the COVID had me in ICU for over a week.
In my young dumb days when I viewed speed limits as a suggestion I was riding my bike to happy hour. ?ÿOn a residential street going around a right hand curve a car backed out of a driveway on the right side of the street. ?ÿThere was no stopping so I accelerated going to the left and the front tire barely touched the curb on the left side of the street. ?ÿA Harley with an 8 over front end wasn??t meant for this. ?ÿI kept it on it??s wheels, twisted the throttle to slow down and proceeded at the suggested speed limit to the bar.
That first beer was the best I??ve drank in my life. It was a 10 cent Bud draft at Friday Sours in the Royal on Broad St.
Working on a 7 story building placing patch under the top sill. The mobile scaffolding took forever to move so I was rappelling with a bucket of water on one side and quick patch on the other. I got distracted on my hookup and swung over the edge. The rope jammed and I figured it was twisted so I bounced a few times to free it.
I looked down to see I had made a fatal hookup. The gate of the snaplink was barely caught between the twists of the rope. Lucky I had swapped out my smooth static that morning for military green line.
I had to stand on a 10 inch wide 45 degree ledge and completely unhook and rehook. That is the most unnatural and difficult act of my life to date.
Two weeks later I fell off a scaffolding breaking my lower back and neck. When I returned to work again it was surveying, mostly on the ground...
I had to stand on a 10 inch wide 45 degree ledge and completely unhook and rehook.
You win the bragging rights for this thread.?ÿ I got weak just reading that.
Welll.,,,,,, uh,............. there was this one time..................uh..............the train pulled out of the station about one second before.............uh, uh...........you know.
That would have been a major life changer, for sure, for sure.?ÿ And, not for the better, as time has proven.
Luckiest vehicle of any kind incident was a young teenager driving the tractor along the front side of a large pond dam packing down fresh dirt in a wash area.?ÿ The dirt slipped sideways towards the water and took the rear tire with it, leaving me about two inches from rolling over into the pond with a tractor on top of me.?ÿ This was about the tenth pass, so was a huge surprise.?ÿ Dad was right there, but, he would not have been able to do anything to save me.
Luckiest automobile incident happened while turning into a driveway.?ÿ The steering arm disconnected from the tie rod at about 5 mph instead of the 60 mph a half mile prior when I crossed a rough railroad crossing.
Luckiest over all incident.?ÿ The firing pin in the old 12 ga. shotgun broke, shot out and hit me in the right eyebrow and deflected up and away.?ÿ I didn't have a clue what had happened in that instant following shooting at a turtle dove.?ÿ Felt like a horse or cow had kicked me in the forehead.?ÿ A fraction of an inch lower and I wouldn't have a right eye.
I used to hang out with a mess of other aimless chaps at a local beer joint on old highway 66.?ÿ We were the intellectual giants of our time.?ÿ And we parked all of our two wheeled chariots pointing in the same direction along the front of the place just to prove our mental superiority.
The highway ran east and west and this place was on the SE corner of the intersection with a traffic light.?ÿ The next business to the east was a lumber yard.?ÿ We kept all our scooters facing east for a "quick getaway".
When the eastbound traffic would get a green light you might have to sit there for a while waiting to get into traffic.?ÿ I guess this was unacceptable for me so I was always looking at the light to make sure I could get my motorsickle started and in gear to roar off eastbound before the light turned green, hence beating the traffic.
I did just that one hot afternoon.?ÿ The bike took one more stomp to get started than I calculated.?ÿ As I put it in gear and took off across the asphalt to merge I was looking back west at the traffic that was just leaving the light.?ÿ I kept my head facing west to monitor traffic as I roared onto the highway eastbound.
Unseen by me was a lumber truck leaving the lumber yard at the same time.?ÿ He too was trying to get up on the highway to beat the oncoming traffic.?ÿ As I topped second gear I decided to turn my head and actually look into the direction I was no headed at almost sixty miles an hour....all I could see was a load of 2x10s hanging off the back of the truck about 5' with a red rag tied to the end.
I an impulsive move to survive I ducked my head to get under the lumber.?ÿ I did barely...I felt the the red rag drag across my ear.?ÿ I was so close the the lumber I could smell it.
This all happened in just seconds.?ÿ My heart was jumping out of my chest and the blood ran ice cold in my veins.?ÿ I popped the bike into neutral and coasted to the edge of paving.?ÿ When I came to a stop my leg was shaking so bad it wouldn't hold up the bike.?ÿ I just kind of laid it down on its side and I sat on the curb shaking for a good half hour.
I was so close to dying I could hear harp music...
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You could say I met my angel that day
Agreed. Funny how the universe has a way, isn't it.?ÿ
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I used to hang out with a mess of other aimless chaps at a local beer joint on old highway 66.?ÿ We were the intellectual giants of our time.?ÿ And we parked all of our two wheeled chariots pointing in the same direction along the front of the place just to prove our mental superiority.
The highway ran east and west and this place was on the SE corner of the intersection with a traffic light.?ÿ The next business to the east was a lumber yard.?ÿ We kept all our scooters facing east for a "quick getaway".
When the eastbound traffic would get a green light you might have to sit there for a while waiting to get into traffic.?ÿ I guess this was unacceptable for me so I was always looking at the light to make sure I could get my motorsickle started and in gear to roar off eastbound before the light turned green, hence beating the traffic.
I did just that one hot afternoon.?ÿ The bike took one more stomp to get started than I calculated.?ÿ As I put it in gear and took off across the asphalt to merge I was looking back west at the traffic that was just leaving the light.?ÿ I kept my head facing west to monitor traffic as I roared onto the highway eastbound.
Unseen by me was a lumber truck leaving the lumber yard at the same time.?ÿ He too was trying to get up on the highway to beat the oncoming traffic.?ÿ As I topped second gear I decided to turn my head and actually look into the direction I was no headed at almost sixty miles an hour....all I could see was a load of 2x10s hanging off the back of the truck about 5' with a red rag tied to the end.
I an impulsive move to survive I ducked my head to get under the lumber.?ÿ I did barely...I felt the the red rag drag across my ear.?ÿ I was so close the the lumber I could smell it.
This all happened in just seconds.?ÿ My heart was jumping out of my chest and the blood ran ice cold in my veins.?ÿ I popped the bike into neutral and coasted to the edge of paving.?ÿ When I came to a stop my leg was shaking so bad it wouldn't hold up the bike.?ÿ I just kind of laid it down on its side and I sat on the curb shaking for a good half hour.
I was so close to dying I could hear harp music...
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At least you kept your head and ducked down. Or is it ducked down and kept your head? ?ÿBet you??re glad you weren??t on a Z-1. Most Harley guys wouldn??t be caught dead on a Kawasaki.
This was in my highschool days...
About a mile from my parents house my friend Jason lived and he had a 2 cycle Yamaha three wheeler. No lights, no helmet, no high-vis clothing, middle of a summer afternoon in Kansas on a gravel road. The three wheeler really?ÿ had some "got up and went" BUT it also had a manual choke that you had to fiddle with while riding to keep it running until you got to third gear. It was my turn to ride so I ripped across the gravel road, down a field road along a tree line (I didn't know the land owner), I got to the end of the tree line, turned around and headed back to the road as fast as I could go. Got to the road, whipped a hard right turn, fish tailing and throwing rocks everywhere. I down shifted with one hand on the choke, one hand on the throttle and had a "feeling" that I needed to look behind me, so I did...there was a car about 10 feet from my back two wheels. I didn't see them at all.
I pulled over, they went past and we parked the three wheeler in the barn before someone got killed. Needless to say my heart was beating out of my chest.
@squirl?ÿ
Watched an extremely similar scene one day when I was in high school.?ÿ A couple of guys with dirt bikes were roaring through the undergrowth "down by the river", then shooting up the embankment onto the paved road near one end of the "old river bridge".?ÿ One fellow shot out directly in front of a car that somehow did not hit him.?ÿ But, from my perspective, he must have been inches away from the front bumper.?ÿ I was fully expecting to see him and the bike being knocked into me, standing near the bridge.
I was out setting up my control for a job a while back. Placing the cones around the section corner and scrape away the dirt. Crappy site distance both ways. Over the hill comes a Trans Am with nice big fender flares doing about 55 to 60 in a 45. I heard a big whoosh as she went past and got knocked off balance away from the car. I thought to myself, boy that was close. I looked down and realized I had black tire tracks on my pants. Later I little bruising on my thigh and calf. She actually hit me but didn't break the skin (or my leg for that matter). Got back in the truck and found her crying on the side of the road over the next hill. I helped to to cry a little harder.?ÿ
That is TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO close.?ÿ Wow.
Back when my oldest daughter was finally walking well by herself we were at a garage sale in the city where we lived.?ÿ When she realized we were done and headed back to our car, she took off running to get there before us.?ÿ Yelling for her to stop did no good.?ÿ We saw the car coming down the street and yelled louder.?ÿ Fortunately, the driver somehow saw her (or us) and stopped.?ÿ At that same moment our daughter ran into the side of her car and fell down.?ÿ Everyone was relieved, except for the daughter.?ÿ She about scared herself to death.?ÿ Must have cried for fifteen minutes.
Damn these stories are crazy!?ÿ
Anyone ever had that helpless feeling of a wheel/tire that has come off a vehicle and it rolling your direction??ÿ I've had that twice.?ÿ Once, I was on I-44 on a long drive back from OK and I was talking to my mom to pass the time.?ÿ Up ahead, I see a wheel come off a semi trailer on the west bound side.?ÿ The wheel heads for the grass median and bounds right in the fast lane headed for me.?ÿ I say "mom, I'm going to set the phone down for a sec and I'll be right back", it was time for some evasive maneuvers.?ÿ Fortunately, with about 200' to go, which is not much at 75 mph, it turned and went off the embankment and down in the woods.?ÿ I picked the phone back up and mom asks "what was that about?"?ÿ I said "just a semi wheel headed for me.?ÿ It went off the road at the last second."?ÿ There was a moment of silence.?ÿ She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.?ÿ Love my mom!?ÿ?ÿ
Another time I was set up on a shoulder of busy 4-lane with a suicide lane road doing some topo.?ÿ I hear a "look out!" over the radio just as a wheel/tire comes bounding by me as an 80's Cutlass comes pulling up right behind me with one rotor grinding in the pavement.?ÿ The loose wheel veers over into the oncoming southbound traffic and totally V's in the front-end of a car which sends the wayward wheel back south.?ÿ It bounds off the road, through a ditch and comes to rest in front of a store.?ÿ The car that got hit just drives off.?ÿ A lady got of the Cutlass and was cussing the tire shop that she just left.?ÿ She said that was the second time that has happened!?ÿ?ÿ
The lone wheel-from-Hell was described in a news story involving the highway that connects Boise City and Guymon, Oklahoma a dozen years back.?ÿ A truck, described as being similar to a big U-Haul truck, was speeding down the road when one rear wheel came off and traveled more than a mile down the highway before coming to a stop.?ÿ It turned out the truck was overloaded with very compacted drugs.?ÿ Every wheel had been jammed full of as many packages of drugs as possible and the tire inflated before being put back on the truck.?ÿ The wheel recovered was incredibly heavy.?ÿ That was what lead to searching the truck.
