What was your scariest driving experience? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mbdad · #1 11-14-2002, 10:24 PM

Year's ago my wife and I were driving up in NY. A cement mixer passed us like we were standing still. All of a sudden it shot across three lanes of traffic and through a guard rail. We were too startled watching it go off the road to notice why.
The front left tire (which seemed enormous) came off and was now directly in front of my car!
We went off the road and the tire just missed us. Scared the beans out us!
That tire must have traveled down the road for a mile. Just saw cars flying left and right.
Stopped to check on the driver. He went down the embankment and smashed into the woods. The large water container above the cab let loose. The driver was OK but soaked!
Thank god no one was hurt.

TTaM · #2 11-15-2002, 12:17 AM

Mine was wiping out on my bike. I was cut off by some unattentive driver, locked the brakes in the gravel just to avoid hitting the car, and slid into 2 lanes of oncoming traffic. Luckily I was only going 35mph. I slid about 20 feet and was able to stop in the median. I was able to watch the bike slide 40 feet into an oncoming van. Well, needless to say, I have yet to hop back in the saddle. This is due to lack of funds though. I need something for my "being 20" speed addiction, and the 240D just doesn't do that for me.

LuckyF8 · #3 11-15-2002, 12:29 AM

mbdad,

We are all as lucky as you, at one time or another, thank's for the story.

As for me, "oh mommy" the things I have seen.........Yike's!

Let's not go there, just be happy we are here!

dieseldude · #4 11-15-2002, 10:43 AM

well, mine wasn't as life-threatening as some of yours

, but still memorable.

A semi that I was overtaking, blew a tire when I was right next to him. Was a very loud bang! that made me jump in my seat, I had no time to register what happened before I saw him quickly shrinking in my rear view mirror with bits of tire flying around. The jolt of adrenaline kept we wide awake for the rest of the trip

Regards,
- Ryan

G-Benz · #5 11-15-2002, 11:23 AM

I was a young college student on my way to school one morning in my VW. It had sleeted the night before, so driving was already treacherous.

Anyway, I was driving on the lonely country road at about 30 mph (usually 55mph when dry), and I began to close in on some other slower moving vehicles in front of me. I didn't want to slow down (ahhh, youth), so I carefully veered over to the opposite lane to pass. I had made it around all of the vehicles and back over to my lane when I felt the tires begin to lose grip. The VW started to slide the rear end over to one side.

I overcorrected with the steering wheel and wound up slinging the rear end over the other way. With every attempt to straigthen the car out with the steering wheel, I would launch the rear of the car in the opposite direction.

Before long, I had this violent tail-wagging effect going on, and each "wag" increased with intensity, until I decided I couldn't control the oscillations any more. When I gave up, I found myself facing the traffic I just passed up, heading down the road going backwards at 35 mph!

I figured I would be dead soon as some large vehicle would take me out in the opposing lane, but instead, the car evenually slid over to the adjacent ditch, and the iced-over grass slowed the car down to a halt!

That must have looked pretty interesting to the folks in the cars I just passed up!

One thing that stuck in my mind was that I had the first track of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" playing in my 8-track deck...so whenever I hear that song, I think of that episode...

RG5384 · #6 11-16-2002, 02:19 PM

Other than an acutual accident i was envolved in when i was 16 ( I dont care what anyone says, NO 16 year old is a good driver....), i've only had one or two major things happen. I'll tell you all about the most recent one. I had picked up my girlfriend at UCF and was heading home for the weekend (i go to UNF) and was driving west on I4. I'm going along at a good clip (85-90.....i know i know....) in the left hand lane, and was in the process of passing about 5-6 cars in the right hand lane. I notice a red ford focus doing a U-turn in the middle of the interstate, right through the huge grass median. I was thinking in my head "what a moron" and had already started to cover my brake, but at this point i still figured he would actually look before he pulled out into traffic going well over 70mph. Well, i was wrong. He just kept driving right into my lane, i hit my brakes as hard as i could without locking them up, and felt the rear end start to slip a very little bit, i realized that there was no way i could come to a dead stop(not to mention that would be incredibly dangerous for traffic behind me as well), so i went off the side of the road onto the shoulder and went around him. Scared the crap out of my girlfriend and myself! the moron then decided that blocking just my lane wasn't near good enough, and that he wanted to block both lanes. He came to a dead stop in the middle of the road and made the traffic in the right lane slam on their brakes too. Luckily, no accident resulted, but where the hell is a cop when you need one.
R

#7 11-16-2002, 07:03 PM

My scariest driving experience was while driving big trucks. I used to haul what was called a "Rocky Mountain Double." For those who don't know what these are, these are a 48 foot trailer with a second 27 foot trailer being dragged behind it.

Anyway, it was winter and I was pulling out of Laramie, WY on the way to Cheyenne, WY along I-80. Pulling over the pass just west of Laramie, the roads turned wet. I was running the posted limit (75 mph) and cruising down the hill, which is a gradual downgrade all the way to Cheyenne, about 30 or so miles. About 5 miles down the hill, the coffe that I had been pounding down all night decided that it had completed its usefulness. No biggie, I would just pull off on an off ramp and take care of business. I find one and proceed to step on the brakes. The entire combination starts sliding all over the place, as the roads had frozen solid without me knowing it. Well I let off of the brake and everything straightened out. Unfortunately for me, the grade had started to steepen just enough to allow for the load to push a little, and I started speeding up. I made a couple of attempts to just barely squeeze the brakes to hold the speed down - no dice. Every tap on the brakes makes the rig squirm. For all intents and purposes, I'm in a runaway type of situation. All I can do is ride the truck down to the bottom and hope that I can lose enough speed to make the southbound turn at I-25.

I finally do get there, and I'm pushing 95. I gradually eased the truck over to the shoulder to get whatever bit of grip I can on the road grime and use primarily gravity to slow the truck down. I make the turn, reading the company name on the REAR trailer in my LEFT mirror, while doing a RIGHT hand turn.

Now I'm going up a hill, and decided that I wanted to stop at the truckstop at the next exit. The roads are still every bit as bad in Cheyenne as I had gotten into going down the hill, and I cannot put ANY power to the road at all. Further, another big truck was stuck at the intersection, blocking the access to the truckstops - no stopping there either, and I'm beginning to be in pain.

All I can now use to climb the next hill is momentum, and by the time I get to the top, I'm running at the blazing speed of 1 mph!! Once again, I have to let gravity to the majority of the work getting the truck up to any semblance of decent forward motion.

I continue south, gradually speeding up on the downhill spots as the road is generally downhill between Cheyenne and Ft. Collins, CO. I had decided that I was going to blow the scales if the roads were still bad down there. THANKFULLY about 5 miles north of town, the ice started breaking up in huge chunks. I pulled into the weigh station and through the scales as fast as the DOT officer will allow. I then park the truck and RUN full bore (I'm in agony at this point) into the scalehouse, hitting the door hard enough to scare the crap out of the officer. I then spent the next 30 minutes chatting with the officer there about what I just drove through while I calmed down from that drive - one of the worst that I've ever had to do.

royaiii · #8 11-16-2002, 07:19 PM

I was driving on the 101 and a mattress went airborne off the roof of a pinto. I couldnt't change my lanes so I just accelerated to the guys tail and the mattress went over my roof. I think it landed safely in the shoulder. I was going about 70 mph, so the pinto must have been going over 75 mph.

mbdad · #9 11-16-2002, 07:24 PM

Wasn't the Pinto known for bursting into flames
when rear-ended?

STORMINORMAN · #10 11-18-2002, 01:03 PM

circa 1972, driving my ' 70 Nova home from college in a fall thunderstorm... On a two-lane country road at 9:00 am on a Wednesday, no other cars...

Rain stopped, sun came out, foot went down as the fog rose from the pavement, almost dry now, over a slight rise with fields on each side @ about 60 mph into...

One hundred feet of standing water, 1 foot deep, from 25 yards on one side of the road to 25 yards on the other! Did a complete 360 in the next 34 yards (or so) and ended up pointing directly forward in my own lane as the road reappeared from the temporary lake I had just crossed. Almost a slow-motion kinda' out-of-body experience... The farmer cleaning out the drainage ditch even gave me the "thumbs-up" sign, although I didn't do a thing to deserve it.

Glad I didn't steer or put on the brakes. Even more glad I was not riding my RD350!

Freestyler · #11 11-18-2002, 03:44 PM

4 months ago when driving home from work in my Miata, i had a near-death experience.
In a place where two highways merge, there's always a lot of stop-and-go traffic during rushhour.
I always take the right lane, which is moving faster that the others for a few miles. (everybody is desperately trying to get into the "fast" lane which clears the right lane..)

All of a sudden traffic just stopped. I ended up right behind a huge 18-wheeler. No prob. -Until i hear the sound of another 18-wheeler panicly using his engine brakes down through the gears.. I look in the rearview mirror and see the truck coming right at me at approx. 25 mph. -And it is only 40 ft. away!!

I was to close to the truck in front of me to get past him on the shoulder without backing up first.. So i smacked it in reverse (well aware that there was no time for that..) and looked back, only to see the truckdriver trowing his immensely huge vehicle to the right with tires screeching.. He managed to miss me by a couple of inches and thundered past me on the shoulder.
This huge rig went all the way past me before it stopped..!

I'm telling you.. A few thousend thoughts flew through my head in an instant. And i had already imagined the sound it would make when i would have become the ketchup in a truck-burger.

The traffic started to move slowly again. When i passed the truck, the driver, (even more white in the face than me), yelled down to me if i was ok? I said "yes, but only due to your snappy reaction". He said "i'm truly sorry but simply lost my brakes!" And then i went on -shaken but not stirred

I NEVER ever place myself right behind a truck in stop and go traffic anymore!

Freestyler

Ashman · #12 11-18-2002, 04:09 PM

for me, one of my scariest, without an accident happening. Was driving my jeep home, up the hill from the san fernando valley to west Los Angeles. I was crusing along at the speed limit upt he hill, and coming around a turn, next thing I know, I'm going back down the hill and I have no idea how it happened.

Another, Driving my benz back from pasadena, I see both rear tires come off the wheels on a ford explorer, one goes bouncing over the front of my car. luckily it did not hit me.

I've had plenty more scary things I've either seen or been a part of, but those two are the most scary, especially seeing a tire come at you at 80 mph!

Alon

el presidente · #13 11-18-2002, 05:03 PM

Thankfully, I'm still here today to post this

Year: 1985
Location: Northern Colorado...heading back up to school from a party in Denver at about 3am. I'm a passenger in a VW Bug (my gf at the time was driving). We had been drinking earlier in the evening, but had quit about 11pm. Snoozed a little, the woke up and headed back to school. If I remember correctly, it was in early December. A little snow on the sides of the road, but the highway was generally clear.

We were heading North on a 4 lane divided (by a grass median) highway. We're in the left lane (no traffic) to avoid the frost heaves in the pavement. My gf is driving, but we are both pretty tired. I see headlights coming towards us. First, I'm thinking to myself, there must be a slight curve in this road, as they seemed to be closer than the 2 or 3 other cars we had passed going the opposite direction in the previous 30 minutes or so. The lights are getting a little closer. When I figure out that this vehicle approaching is in our lane, heading right for us, my gf freezes! I look at her and then look up and see it coming right for us. I put my left hand out, grab the wheel from her and jerk the wheel hard to the right...we just get into the right lane as a car whistles past us in the lane we just exited.

As soon as the car goes by, my gf can't catch her breath. I help get us to the emergency lane and get the car stopped. We didn't move for about 15 minutes. Then she asked if I would drive the rest of the way back to her apartment, which I did.

I don't often think of that story, but when I do, it really reminds me of just how precious life is and how it can end without warning. Suddenly, I have some chills...

vrsmith · #14 11-18-2002, 10:49 PM

I was driving my family on a wet day at about 45 miles an hour.
The car in front of us was a big Ford Galaxy, about 1970. I saw
a pickup truck going very fast towards us at a curve. Suddenly,
it lost it on the corner and went sideways and then back straight.
Anyway, the Galaxy and I start slowing down, but it is very wet.
The truck corrects enough to plow straight into the front of the
Galaxy. I had to take a fairly wild evasive manoever to clear the
two vehicles colliding. I was driving a 1985 Hyundai Pony, which
is about the size of a Toyota wagon, (small!).
Anyway, the truck buckled in the middle and the gas poured onto
the road. The fronts of both vehicles were smashed in and the
Galaxy passenger was knocked out. The gas never ignited.
Both the truck and car ended up on the side of the road pointing
in the same direction. I had to tell the cops what happened
since it looked so wierd.
We were incredibly lucky that we didn't hit the truck as we
wouldn't be here now.

JCE · #15 11-19-2002, 03:08 AM

My '54 chevy had been backed into at the JC one afternoon, leaving a crease in the front of the hood (Large, heavy, bulbose affair which extended down into the grill - not light, flat sheet metal like these days). I made sure the hood was secure and wouldn't move (It wouldn't budge, couldn't even open it), and drove home.

Next morning on the way to class before going to the body shop, there was a heavy rainstorm. I drove over the old Santa Clara River bridge on US 101 along the coast on the way to the JC in Ventura, driving about 50mph because of the heavy rain, and being rapidly passed by every damn fool who didn't want to believe the impresive accident statistics for that old 4 lane undivided bridge could apply to them. Half way across, with no warning, the hood catch let go and the hood slammed against the windscreen, bending back over the roof, and I was instantly flying blind.

I cranked the window down as fast as I could and stuck my head out in the rain to see where I was going, and what was going to ram me from the rear if I braked. I glanced in the side mirror just in time to see the woman who had been about to pass me at about 70mph panic and slam on her brakes (no disk brakes or ABS back then). She lost control and started a slow spin, while gaining on me. She was about to broadside me in the tail end so I sped up, then she continued her spin and passed me tail first. I slowed down as she kept her spin going broadside in front of me. She spun about two more complete circles before hitting the rail and tearing out some of the old concrete railing, but didn't go into the river. Lots of mutual hysteria, but no injuries

I missed my class!