Ever avoided a fatal accident
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About 15 years ago or so, I had rather bald tires, and I knew it, yet I didn't take of the tires and drove on a rainy day on the highway. I ended up spinning around several times and then heading off toward the median, which had a huge swath of grass between the highway and the actual metal barrier. While not a fatal accident, though under slightly different circumstances it could have been, it taught me several lessons about not being an idiot when it comes to keeping the car in good condition. I also now always inspect cars that I rent before driving off with them. On several occasions I have had rental cars with balding tires or poorly inflated tires. Marc
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh SmithMarc Clifton wrote:
On several occasions I have had rental cars with balding tires or poorly inflated tires.
Strange. Most rental cars are sold off after 1-2 years of usage. Poorly-inflated tires I can understand, but balding tires within 2 years is odd.
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
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i was riding my bike home from work one day, when i was 19. i was going about 22mph, and came to an intersection. as soon as i got into it, the light changed to yellow. i knew i could make it before it turned red, but i dug in and powered through it as fast as i could, just in case. an old woman in a giant old Oldsmobile was sitting at the cross-street, waiting to make a right turn into the lane where i was. as soon as the last car cleared the intersection, she went for it. she hit me broadside. my bike went under the car, and i went up her hood. i dented my helmet on her windshield, and bruised my ankle on her bumper, but was otherwise unhurt. i walked around to the back of her car and picked up my bike - the front and rear axles were touching. i would've been shredded if i'd gone under.
Chris Losinger wrote:
an old woman in a giant old Oldsmobile was sitting at the cross-street, waiting to make a right turn into the lane where i was. as soon as the last car cleared the intersection, she went for it.
Didn't she even see you???
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
Chris Losinger wrote:
an old woman in a giant old Oldsmobile was sitting at the cross-street, waiting to make a right turn into the lane where i was. as soon as the last car cleared the intersection, she went for it.
Didn't she even see you???
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New)i don't think so. since i wasn't hurt and wasn't insterested in calling the police, she left as soon as she knew i was ok. so, i didn't get a chance to ask her.
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i don't think so. since i wasn't hurt and wasn't insterested in calling the police, she left as soon as she knew i was ok. so, i didn't get a chance to ask her.
Chris Losinger wrote:
since i wasn't hurt and wasn't insterested in calling the police, she left as soon as she knew i was ok. so, i didn't get a chance to ask her.
So, she didn't pay for the damaged bike either?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
I was driving home once at about 4am, I was really tired, and the drive was about 45 minutes. I didn't know I did it at the time, but I must have dozed off for a little bit of time, because I was startled awake as I ran over something large on the road. I immediately pulled over, and it turns out that a racoon had run out in front of my car, and I ran it over (it was killed instantly). Racoons are quite a pest, but I felt sorry for this particular racoon, since it was an accident. I've always wondered if I wasn't so tired if I would have avoided the animal or not?!?
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Chris Losinger wrote:
since i wasn't hurt and wasn't insterested in calling the police, she left as soon as she knew i was ok. so, i didn't get a chance to ask her.
So, she didn't pay for the damaged bike either?
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New)nope. she was pretty shook-up, i figured she'd learned her lesson. i learned mine: running is safer.
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I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
I did, but I was not driving. It was 4 years ago, a friend of mine was driving me at home. We were in a peripheral city road, with only one lane for each direction. Suddently he tried to surpass (is that correct?) a slow car, just before a turn of the road. A HUGE truck was coming from the opposite direction. We re-entered our lane just in time, at about half a meter away from the truck. He was not drunk or something, he was (is) simply crazy.
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Marc Clifton wrote:
On several occasions I have had rental cars with balding tires or poorly inflated tires.
Strange. Most rental cars are sold off after 1-2 years of usage. Poorly-inflated tires I can understand, but balding tires within 2 years is odd.
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New)Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
Strange. Most rental cars are sold off after 1-2 years of usage. Poorly-inflated tires I can understand, but balding tires within 2 years is odd.
What Marc meant to say was they were bald when he was finished with them because he drives like a bat out of hell. :rolleyes:
Jeremy Falcon
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Nishant Sivakumar wrote:
Strange. Most rental cars are sold off after 1-2 years of usage. Poorly-inflated tires I can understand, but balding tires within 2 years is odd.
What Marc meant to say was they were bald when he was finished with them because he drives like a bat out of hell. :rolleyes:
Jeremy Falcon
Jeremy Falcon wrote:
What Marc meant to say was they were bald when he was finished with them because he drives like a bat out of hell.
Also, where he lives they probably don't have proper roads :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. Also visit the Ultimate Toolbox blog (New) -
I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
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I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
I have spun out on ice patch on the highway down the street from my house once and luckily no one was coming the other direction :)
too much daily WTF for someone... - Anton Afanasyev
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I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
Once in the middle of winter, in Columbus Ohio, I was late for school. I was about 12 years old. As I ran down the ice-covered sidewalk across the street in front of my home I heard a car coming toward me down the ice-covered alley I was approaching. I tried to stop, but instead fell and slid on my back over the ice-covered sidewalk into the alley, immediately in front of the front wheels of the approaching car. The car was braking and it's tires were not turning as they touched me and pushed me along on the 6" thick ice in the alley. I was screaming "STOP! STOP!", over and over. Once the car finally did stop, I stood up, freaking-out the driver -- an older woman. In a shocked voice, she asked if I was ok. I told her I was fine and ran off to school, not looking back. I've always wondered who she was and what she was thinking that day. If those wheels had been turning, I would have been run-over and crushed.
Silence is the voice of complicity. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. -- monty python Might I suggest that the universe was always the size of the cosmos. It is just that at one point the cosmos was the size of a marble. -- Colin Angus Mackay
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nope. she was pretty shook-up, i figured she'd learned her lesson. i learned mine: running is safer.
Chris Losinger wrote:
running is safer
Silence is the voice of complicity. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. -- monty python Might I suggest that the universe was always the size of the cosmos. It is just that at one point the cosmos was the size of a marble. -- Colin Angus Mackay
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I was driving home once at about 4am, I was really tired, and the drive was about 45 minutes. I didn't know I did it at the time, but I must have dozed off for a little bit of time, because I was startled awake as I ran over something large on the road. I immediately pulled over, and it turns out that a racoon had run out in front of my car, and I ran it over (it was killed instantly). Racoons are quite a pest, but I felt sorry for this particular racoon, since it was an accident. I've always wondered if I wasn't so tired if I would have avoided the animal or not?!?
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Warren D Stevens wrote:
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Cool site. :cool:
I'd love to help, but unfortunatley I have prior commitments monitoring the length of my grass. :Andrew Bleakley:
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I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
I went off the road near aerial cable in the middle of the desert. I punched in the side of the sidewall, deflated the tire instantly and banged up my fender, but otherwise was unharmed. If I had gone of the road 15 seconds earlier I would have hit an arroyo, 15 seconds later, the same... I just happened to go off the road in the softer sand between two arroyos such that the car stopped rapidly without harm to me. any farther down the road and I would have been bouncing out into the desert until the car rolled. I was working 12+ hour days 7 days a week at the time, suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea and other problems. The incident got work to lighten workload for a couple of years and got my sleep apnea diagnosed.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
Not an accident as such, but does being born count? I was born with a medical condition that the first three words of its description in a medical text book says: "Incompatible with life" I guess that is just to underline the seriousness and the criticality of the situation should a doctor ever come into contact with a patient with that condition. Talking of accidents though. I was on my way home from work one evening (about a month ago) and just as I arrived into the town in which I live the traffic was backed up. On the last corner just before you enter the town two cars had collided head on. The head on collisions I've seen in the past the cars pretty much stopped within a few metres of the impact site. In this case they were about a hundred metres from each other. There was glass and plastic all over the road. As I passed one of the cars I notices that I couldn't see into it for a lot of white stuff. Just as I drove past I realised that it was deployed airbags (front and side bags) and the people standing on the pavement on the other side of the road looking a bit shellshocked were the recent occupants of the car. Seeing the state of their car and seeing them still alive considering the state of their car I am really glad my car has airbags. I have air bags that will deploy from the steeting wheel, over the side windows, in the footwell and out of the side of the chair. Rear seat passengers each have a set of air bags too. The down side is that if you have children that will not behave in the car and are out of their seat they will likely be injured by a deploying airbag because they won't be in the right place to be protected.
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i don't think so. since i wasn't hurt and wasn't insterested in calling the police, she left as soon as she knew i was ok. so, i didn't get a chance to ask her.
Chris Losinger wrote:
since i wasn't hurt and wasn't insterested in calling the police, she left as soon as she knew i was ok
That would be illegal in the UK. If there is a Road Traffic Accident the police must be informed, even if it is just to record that it happened.
Upcoming Scottish Developers events: * UK Security Evangelists On Tour (2nd November, Edinburgh) * Developer Day Scotland: are you interested in speaking or attending? My: Website | Blog
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I was driving home once at about 4am, I was really tired, and the drive was about 45 minutes. I didn't know I did it at the time, but I must have dozed off for a little bit of time, because I was startled awake as I ran over something large on the road. I immediately pulled over, and it turns out that a racoon had run out in front of my car, and I ran it over (it was killed instantly). Racoons are quite a pest, but I felt sorry for this particular racoon, since it was an accident. I've always wondered if I wasn't so tired if I would have avoided the animal or not?!?
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Warren D Stevens wrote:
I've always wondered if I wasn't so tired if I would have avoided the animal or not?!?
I was always taught never swerve or deviate your course for a small animal. Avoid deer because they can kill the occupants if run over, but for something the size of a cat, dog, rabbit, pheasant, etc. then just keep going because if you take evasive action you are likely to cause a bigger accident. One time I was driving through the Scottish Borders and a pheasant strayed into the road. The road was straight and quiet but for one car following behind so I slowly pulled over to the other side of the road. The stupid pheasant followed my course. So I moved back to my side of the road. The stupid pheasant followed again. The driver of the car behind must have got a bigger shock than I as I now had no choice but to run the stupid bird over and I saw in my rear view mirror an explosion of feathers from the back of my car.
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I did, but I was not driving. It was 4 years ago, a friend of mine was driving me at home. We were in a peripheral city road, with only one lane for each direction. Suddently he tried to surpass (is that correct?) a slow car, just before a turn of the road. A HUGE truck was coming from the opposite direction. We re-entered our lane just in time, at about half a meter away from the truck. He was not drunk or something, he was (is) simply crazy.
_____________________________________________ Tozzi is right: Gaia is getting rid of us. Personal Blog [ITA] - Tech Blog [ENG] Developing ScrewTurn Wiki 1.0 RC...
Dario Solera wrote:
surpass
"overtake" in standard English. I think the Americans just say "pass"
Upcoming Scottish Developers events: * UK Security Evangelists On Tour (2nd November, Edinburgh) * Developer Day Scotland: are you interested in speaking or attending? My: Website | Blog
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I had a close one last night. I was driving from downtown Atlanta to my home (distance of about 35 miles). It was around 1 am. I was feeling good when I left downtown and I was not drunk. The traffic was extremely light and I was driving in the right most lane in a five lane road. I don't know when but I suddenly dozed off. When I woke up I found myself about an inch from the median on the leftmost shoulder. If I was even a second late I would have hit the median wall at around 65 MPH. Thankfully, the road was empty and there were no other cars on the road otherwise I would have hit one. Of course, that made my sleep to go away completely. This was the closest I ever came to a fatal accident in my life. In fact, I never once had a ticket in my driving career of 8 years. Thanks to wide roads in Atlanta, I am safe. Have you ever avoided an accident that close?
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. -C. A. R. Hoare
Last winter I was driving over Snoqualmie pass(the mountain pass out of Seattle) and had just started the downward journey. It was snowing lightly and the roads were relatively clear so, stupidly, I didn't stop to put on the chains. I came around a very slight bend and my tires hit a patch of slush that sent me spinning through four lanes of packed traffic. There was nothing I could do but hold onto the steering wheel and watch SUVs, trucks and other cars whizzing by me at 40+ mph. I could see the shocked expressions on people's faces as I slid by them, past them and in between. My car finally hit the side barrier and did nothing more that crack my radiator. No one in my car was hurt and we came out of it with not even a bruise. No drinking or anything else was involved, thank God.
An American football fan - Go Seahawks! Lil Turtle