Friday, December 30, 2005

ADRENALINE RUSH

Last evening after a great dinner, we were heading back to S.O. from the east, intending to turn into Spanish Oaks Club Boulevard. Traffic seemed heavy. I put the turn signal on as we started down the hill, to give plenty of warning. There appeared to be a clearing in the traffic coming down the opposite hill. I sped up to try to catch the gap, but by the time we got to the turn it had closed. We stop. I pump my brakes to remind the folks coming in our lane that we are stopped, and they start to peel off, one by one, into the other lane. Except that last car - which doesn't seem to notice we are stopped. The lights come up at a "they don't see me speed." I curse and floor it. My car accelerates very slowly. The car behind me finally 'gets it' and the looming lights dip a bit as if he's on the brakes. We go up to the shopping center and turn around.

Guess I won't die of a heart attack today. Or a rear ender.

Some thoughts: If you turn your wheels while you wait to turn and ARE rear-ended, the push will push you into oncoming traffic. If you do what I did, it now looks like your brakes aren't on (they aren't) and the car closing on you might just not notice your speed and hit you without slowing down. I should have left my turn signal on (or flashers.)

When we lived in California, freeway land of drive-fast-then-stop, there were many many rear-enders where people were killed. Maybe I'm overly sensitized. Right after we moved here we had a similar experience (though in daylight) in which the oncoming car was in a 4 wheel skid toward me... and wouldn't have made it. Luckily, I abandoned my turn in time, and accelerated from the point at which I would have been seriously smashed.

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