Press Your Luck, or Odd Driving Habits, or A Little Paranoia Goes a Long Way
Yesterday I was talking with a co-worker about a car accident her parents had just gotten in (they seemed to be okay, thankfully) and talking about accidents in general, I mentioned that I'd fortunately never been in a car accident.
As long as you don't count the time I slid off the road into a field in a blizzard and a passing trucker pulled my car back onto the road with his rig and a tow chain, anyway. Since I didn't hit anything or damage the car, I don't count that one.
I mentioned that less than half the reason was probably my irritatingly paranoid driving style and more than half was luck. After tempting fate like that, I didn't knock on wood or, in the case of our cubicles, Formica-covered particleboard.
My normal route to work is entirely downhill for about the middle third of the twenty minute drive. Because I'm weird, I normally put it in neutral and turn the engine off for that part of the drive. (Yes, I know that's illegal and can be dangerous, but I have a lot of practice at it and I'm used to driving with no power steering and no vacuum-assist on the brakes.) The downhill part ends at a traffic light crossing a divided highway and I'm normally rolling at about 35 mph as I approach it. Typically I'll restart the engine at that point by putting it in 5th and easing out the clutch, but this time I could tell the light had just turned red, so I kept coasting as I came to a stop at the light.
I'm usually paranoid at intersections and railway crossings and look both ways before going through a green light or crossing the tracks, but this time I was focused on starting the engine and getting into gear after it turned green. When I looked up and started moving forward, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the minivan to my left hadn't moved yet, and at this point the light had been green for two or three seconds. I just began to hesitate and let off the gas when a wrecker towing a ambulance roared through the red light just a foot or two in front of my bumper. Okay... I should have looked that time.
That pissed me off bad enough, but as I started moving again (after looking both ways more than once), I looked down the road at the tow truck. He hadn't even shifted to the left of his lane to try to avoid hitting me. Doublefucker!
As long as you don't count the time I slid off the road into a field in a blizzard and a passing trucker pulled my car back onto the road with his rig and a tow chain, anyway. Since I didn't hit anything or damage the car, I don't count that one.
I mentioned that less than half the reason was probably my irritatingly paranoid driving style and more than half was luck. After tempting fate like that, I didn't knock on wood or, in the case of our cubicles, Formica-covered particleboard.
My normal route to work is entirely downhill for about the middle third of the twenty minute drive. Because I'm weird, I normally put it in neutral and turn the engine off for that part of the drive. (Yes, I know that's illegal and can be dangerous, but I have a lot of practice at it and I'm used to driving with no power steering and no vacuum-assist on the brakes.) The downhill part ends at a traffic light crossing a divided highway and I'm normally rolling at about 35 mph as I approach it. Typically I'll restart the engine at that point by putting it in 5th and easing out the clutch, but this time I could tell the light had just turned red, so I kept coasting as I came to a stop at the light.
I'm usually paranoid at intersections and railway crossings and look both ways before going through a green light or crossing the tracks, but this time I was focused on starting the engine and getting into gear after it turned green. When I looked up and started moving forward, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the minivan to my left hadn't moved yet, and at this point the light had been green for two or three seconds. I just began to hesitate and let off the gas when a wrecker towing a ambulance roared through the red light just a foot or two in front of my bumper. Okay... I should have looked that time.
That pissed me off bad enough, but as I started moving again (after looking both ways more than once), I looked down the road at the tow truck. He hadn't even shifted to the left of his lane to try to avoid hitting me. Doublefucker!