There are some things that no amount of awareness can prepare us for. One such incident happened to me on the way to work today.

I was in my S2 behind an 18-wheeler on a crowded rush-hour 6-lane highway. I saw a safe opening to pass on the right so I accelerated slightly and pulled into the lane to the right of the truck.

I felt a sense of immanent danger, like the truck was going to change lanes or something, so I put my foot on the brake. Just then, "Pow" - one of the rear tires of the truck blew. Pieces of rubber went flying by my car as I nailed the brakes. In my side few mirror I saw the mini-van that was behind the truck run over a complete tire carcass. As soon as I realized the tire was not in my path, I accelerated so as not to get hit in the rear.

My car and I are safe and sound all because I saw an opening and decided to pass. Had I lingered in the lane behind the truck three seconds longer than I did, I would have taken a direct hit by a tire carcass. As we all know, hitting such a large object would have a devastating on our cars.

Not only did this experience send my adrenaline through the roof, it also put me into a very metaphysical mindset. I thought of all the near misses in my life and could not help but wonder I came out unscathed because of blind luck or some sort of a blessed fate.

 

Michael-

Glad to hear that you and the S2 are OK. Yes, sometimes I wonder if I am leading a charmed life or just beneficary of blind luck. BTW please tell me that passing on the right was a last resort.......

Cheers

 

Michael - for you and myself, it's actually more like dumb luck.

- and for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, the traffic in Charlotte moves faster in the lane to the right, regardless of the lane you are in...

 

Michael,

Well a similar thing happend to me on the way to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, I started seeing sparks out of the 18 Wheeler in front of me and then saw the sparks moving closer, I had no where to go, so I shimmed the car over to the left as far as possible and a Huge Muffler skipped by my car on the right, Not only did it miss me, but the rest also it missed the rest of the cars in the heavy trafic. How that happend I'll never know, and like you it triggered thoughts of fate, or luck. I am one who is inclined to belive in fate, but not a blind fate of which we have no control, but more of a controlled fate. But I won't ramble any more. But I am glad that you are alright.

 

Hi Micheal,

All depends on your viewpoints and religious convictions.

a) The human mind has sences we can't even being to imagine, was it some kind of E.S.P or pre-cognitive subconsious sight

b) Do you have a guardian angel or was there a spirit or ghost who gave you a little nudge.

c) It was'nt your time to go yet

d) The man upstair's was looking out for you and got you through it.

Me I tend to belive in the last one.

"by the grace of God"

 

years ago in atlanta i was headed home at 3am. as i approached an 18 wheeler in the center lane i had this overwhelming feeling to just stay behind him, i was going fast enough and it was 3am. just as that thought went thru my mind a car passed in the left lane in excess of 100mph GOING THE WRONG WAY!!! there is no doubt i would have been killed instantly had i passed that truck. someone above me could see that car coming and warned me!

 

Had my fair share of near hids as well.
I don't think its faith, luck or the 7th sense either.
Could never find out why all of the cars I owed till now stalled for a moment while passing a speed trap though...

 

About arounnd a month ago, I was riding along with a girl I had just met (In her car, 1991 honda accord, 10th anniversary edition). We had just gone out to eat and she didn't feel like going back to her house, so we took a drive out along some backroads.

On the way to the backroads her driving was definately frightening me, she had the car in excess of 100mph through traffic. But once we got on to backroads, she slowed down quite a bit and I felt safe.

We made our way deeper and deeper into the middle of nowhere (For those of you familiar with Duncannon, PA you know what I'm talking about) and her driving was really much better than earlier. However, along a particular backroad, the paved road cut off the left at about a 90 degree angle and a gravel road continued straight.

We were going about 40 mph (not unreasonable for the road we were on, but very unreasonable for the 90 degree curve) when both of us realized the road did not continue straight. She cut the wheel to the left and the car began to understeer, right into the woods. I was never really worried through the entire incident, I thought we would stop in time, and even as we entered the woods, I wasn't really too scared. The car missed a tree on the left by about 4 inches, and as I would find out later, the mirror on my side of the car was taken clean off by a tree as we entered the woods. Remarkably, the car continued into the woods until it was about 50 feet in, at which point it struck a fallen tree and a pile of dirt on the driver side that threw the car up on its side. Now the car would have gone over, and being a tall guy at 6' 4", I'm sure that would not have been a pleasant exprience, but another tree caught the car and kept it from rolling. There I sat, in a car on its side, 50 feet into the woods in the middle of nowhere.. both of us unharmed and without a scratch to be seen.

Now maybe this is dumb luck, but standing back on the road looking into the gaping hole carved by that honda.. I _know_ theres no way that happens by accident. It seems the car had managed to make its way, not just a little ways into the woods, but 50 feet into the woods on the ONLY path that was clear of large trees and damaging objects. Had we struck a tree or had any of a million other things had happened, the accident would have been so much worse and we would probably would have sat there for a very long time before someone noticed the car.

I've had a fender bender before where I could tell before it happened that it was going to be a bad day/week. Since then I've listened to those "gut" feelings you get once in a while, and save for the accident above, I've been pretty trouble free.

 

I ounce tried to pass a Semi while I was driving my dads convertable, and realized there was oncoming trafic. I swerved back behind the Semi, But my rear end went off the road snapping a wheel off on a large rock. I heard the sound but I thought I'd hit a road sign. Due to adrenaline or what ever I didn't know the wheel was gone and I tried desperatly, with no avail to get back on the road. At 65 mph going back on the road without a wheel would have put me top down on pavement, not to mention in the middle of trafic. Instead my convertable rolled offroad and upside down into a small stream. The cab was perfectly nestled in the ditch. The front end, and rear end were totaled. everything from the windshield to the back seat were fine. The windshield was unscathed and the side windows were unharmed. I crawled out of a 65 mph flip in a rag top with not so much as cuts from broken glass or even a head ache from being upside down. Did the seat belt save me? Is it just chance that there happened to be a stream there to catch me when she went rubber up? No, The navigator took over. And maybee he even put the rock there too, just to teach a lesson. Sorry for the long post, maybee I'm not the only one that can learn from it.

 

The problem I find with these types of stories, is that: If you hadn't survived, you wouldn't be telling it.

 

"Does our fate give us powers of immunity?" Hmmm.... well, I suppose that if you believe in fate or pre-destination, then, by definition, it must. Two problems, tho'.... One, we have no way of knowing _what_ our fate is; two, it's exactly what we _wouldn't_ be immune to....

Jim, "To become old & wise, we must first survive being young and foolish...." (Which I suppose is just a Yankee's way of saying "Hey, y'all! Watch this!")

 

Tabor, I would.

(always trying to be unbiased...)

 

Well...I am sure most of you remember when my buddy took my 951 through a guardrail right rear fender first in the rain causing more than $7000 of damage...but...another time, I was with a friend of mine, and he was driving me somewhere because I had lost my license for 9 months (I was a stupid kid, okay?), and he took his suzuki samurai onto a nice set of back roads near my house (a round about way to get where we were going), and he was going way to fast in a samurai for those types of roads...anyways, we came up on a left hand sweeper turn with a 20 MPH sign posted (rest of road is 35) and he hit the turn at...I don't know...about 55 or 60, in a samurai. Just as I was expecting, the rear end came out (throttle lift oversteer) and the tires then caught some gravel on the shoulder...the whole car began sliding completely sideways (passenger side was going straight), and then the car started to flip over (what samurais are best known for). Well...we went through a ditch sliding on my door, then the car popped completely upside down and slid between 2 trees (missing either one by a few inches while still going 20 MPH or so...blessed were we), and then turned over so that his door was on the ground. I was fine (I was wearing my seat belt as always), except a little whiplash and my knee got banged into the dashboard in an unpleasant manner, but he suffered a concussion, cuts, scrapes, and bruises because he wasn't wearing his seat belt, and an empty bottle of vodka (no, neither of us were drinking at the time) came out of the rear of the car and broke over his head, causing him a concussion, and his scrapes, cuts, and bruises all came from flying around the cabin of the car. We both crawled out of my door (since it was facing vertically), put out the small oil fire that started on the underside of his car, called a tow truck, and had the car flipped back over and dragged out of the woods. When we got it back onto the road, it was only dented and scraped along the roof, b pillars, doors and fenders, as well as the convertable top covering the rear was completely bent out of shape. Well...the car fired right up, blew black smoke out of the exhaust for 10 minutes, and drove away fine. Well...except for the property damage and risk of loosing my life, I would have to say that that was actually a lot of fun.

 

What? How exactly do you tell the story when you are dead?

 

I firmly believe in guardian angels. I don't see them or anything like that, and I don't think it's like "City of Angels", but I think it's something.

My friend and I were in Atlanta a few years back, his cousin whom I just met was driving. It was this POS 83 Ford Escort or something, about ready to fall apart. I'm sitting in the back seat. This kid is driving 85-95 mph and it's about 10 PM on I think I70 (where it's 3-4 lanes). He's already gone on about how his brakes are messed up, and wheels and on and on... I'm telling him to slow down now or he'll be sorry if I ever get out of this car, and he starts to slow down. He's not paying attention to driving, I'm about to smack the crap out of him but I thought I would wait until we were stopped, and next thing I know we come over the crest of this hill and all I see are brake lights. Of course he doesn't see them because he's not paying attention, and I yell "STOP." He looks up and hits the brakes and we begin our skid into these cars. Next thing I remember happening is either my friend (hey Phil) or the cousin pulls the wheel right, and instead of spinning around we start to skid right and miss the cars in the left lane, then continue skidding and miss those cars, then the next lane, and the next. Each lane was further up then the previous, thank God.

Anyway, thought I would share that story because if you are ever in a car with someone and it just DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT, get out as soon as you can. Life is not something to play games with.

-Matt

EDIT:
I just noticed 2 other people having stories near or in ATL... what gives?