I was on my way to Arlington when I stopped by a 7-Eleven to get some Gatorade. As I was looking behind while backing out of the parking spot I saw the wildest thing -- a Subaru wagon hit a van, went airborne, flew across 4 lanes and finally came to a stop when it hit a utility pole! Without that pole the Subaru would've ran into my car! Holy ****! That was a close call! And it looks like my car used up two of its 9 lives because the light from the utility pole missed falling on my rear deck by a few feet!







A couple of us who witnessed the accident came to help the old man who was driving the Subaru. He claimed that his brakes failed. He was obviously in shock and kept wanting to move the car out of the way (it wasn't going anywhere!) so we had to take the keys from him. I called 911 and paramedics were on the scene in less than 3 minutes (it was about 2 blocks from the fire station.) Police arrived a few minutes after the paramedics.

 

Lucky! Glad to hear that you and the car are fine! That had to be something to see!

 

It was pretty wild seeing that Subaru go flying over the hedge after hitting the van. I actually braced for impact -- my car was in the direct path of the Subaru and would've gotten hit if it weren't for that utility pole. After the adrenaline wore off my shoulders were actually a bit sore from tensing up! Crazy!

P.S. The old man was okay. His knees were a little sore I guess from hitting the dashboard under the steering column. He was walking around by the time the paramedics got there. The Latin couple who were in the Mazda MPV were fine too.

 

I'm fairly secure in my masculinity, but I would have screamed like a 12 year old girl...no offense to the ladies on the forum. Whew, glad you escaped. Freaky accident.

 

Thanks for the annotated photos, made for a great story. Glad you and the P-car are OK.

 

Not the old "my brakes failed" story....

Glad you were out of range.

 

Yikes! Glad to hear you came out unscathed and that no one was seriously hurt! My heart rate went up just reading it, thanks for sharing!

 

WOW!! Must've felt like a slow motion movie as things were unfolding.

 

Here's another picture showing just how close it was! (Thanks, Google Maps!)



Somebody else said that it was probably "pedal confusion" and that would certainly explain why I didn't hear any tire screech or see any skid marks. And the Subaru must have been going pretty fast in order to catch some air and trim the top the hedge instead of mowing down the hedge!

It's funny you mention that -- I am sure it took place in a span of a few seconds but it seemed a lot longer. It certainly got my adrenaline going!

Anyway, the most shocking part of the whole thing was that the Exxon station was charging $4.49 per gallon for Premium (93 octane) gas! Shocking!

 

whew! glad you and seemingly everyone else are OK.

No offense meant to any of our more senior members, but this pedal confusion thing causes so many wild accidents, many involving seniors.

 

Yep, we get 'em crashing through storefronts, etc. all the time down here in south FL. Politicians are afraid to call for road tests for elderly drivers renewing their licenses, since they'd be voted out of office!

 

I think that they should be retested at 65 years old and retested again every 3-5 years. It's a safety issue and many older drivers simply shouldn't be on the road any more.

 

I'd have to agree. A friend of mine is an Ophthalmologist. It is not a rare occurrence that a senior patient is declared legally blind, who came in to the office driving a car, and drives off again. Due to legal considerations, they are now offering taxi service for these folks. Guess how many of these "legally blind" seniors get right back out and drive again?

 

Yup, they don't want to give up their keys.

The size of the babyboomer generation is going to make the problem a lot worse and something will have to be done - we can't have such a large generation of drivers on the road without ensuring that they're safe.

The babyboomers have always been the "me" (selfish) generation and they're not going to "do the right thing" without being encouraged to do so.... for the safety of everyone else on the road we will have to do something.

 

It's easy to understand the desire not to relinquish one's keys. Aside from pride, there are economic considerations that a fixed income imposes on a senior which make it tougher to justify taxis. Most cities and almost all suburbs lack viable public transportation alternatives as well.

I'm all for periodic testing, and if it took the sting out of being discriminated against due to age, there's no reason not to mandate quickie road tests for all people regardless of age at the same interval. And every time someone rents a Zip Car. Heaven knows how many younger people would fail a basic driving test years after they started driving.

More revenue for the states, throw the proceeds into fixing these 19-eating potholes everywhere.