After a week of thinking I've never had any close calls
I've just remembered this cheeky pea........

About 18 months ago I was helping a couple of my friends move house. Most of the gear had been shifted and I was shuttling the last of it, along with my 2 friends and another friend to their new house. We were driving along a b-road alongside a motorway, the m74 if you're trying to hunt me down, and chatting away. As I hadn't seen my friends in quite a while we were chatting and laughing away merrily when, all of a sudden, I noticed about 40 metres in front of us a car had stopped in the road indicating to turn right at a small crossroads which, in my defence, hardly ever has any cars at it, and was sitting waiting for oncoming traffic to pass before doing so.

It's strange how time slows down. I remember hearing myself say "Oh!" and everyone else shutting up instantly. I was traveling at around 70mph and by now was worryingly close. Without thinking my foot hit the brake, but the car started gliding along on the stopped wheels. I thought for a second about pumping the brakes, but my brain kicked in and realised it was far far too late.

What happened next was weird. I felt totally calm. Still in super slo-mo, I released the brake, steered slightly to the side, mounted the grass verge, overtook the stationary car on the inside, hit a very high kerb on the other side of the crossroads and just glided over it, straightened the car up on the road and continued on as though nothing had happened.

Silence. Only the sound of the engine and the gentle crackling of me removing my hands from where they had lodged in the steering wheel could be heard. Then three of us burst into fits of laughter as we all realised we were still alive, with my other friend just sitting looking awestruck. We then realised the car I had almost hit was now in hot pursuit, but he gave up his rage induced chase after giving me a few rude hand signals.

It wasn't until a good while later that it dawned on me that had I over-steered, had the car not floated effortlessly over a six inch kerb at 50mph without me losing control, had the car skidded on the grass as I turned back onto the road, had I not somehow known not to press my foot as hard as possible to the floor on the brake,had these or any number of other probable outcomes of that crazy maneuver happened I and three of my friends would quite probably be dead or seriously injured, not to mention the driver of the other car. A few seconds lapse of concentration. I felt weird for a few days after that, it's the closest I've knowingly come to being dead.
( baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Wed 25 Aug 2010, 12:38, Reply)