Speed kills Absolutely

"Speed never kills anybody. It's that sudden deceleration that gets you every time" -Jeremy Clarkson, I think

 

One time, I was cruising down a country two lane with a fresh coat of tar on it and it had just rained. Guy in a pickup blasts around me; not long after I see him dip onto the shoulder ever so slightly. He seemingly panics and jerks the wheel (severe overcorrection) and a split second later he's going sideways down the road aimed to the right. after what seems like a long time he catches some traction and launches straight into the ditch. Lucky for him it was northern Wisconsin farmland and he didn't line up with a telephone pole. Lucky for me (and him) he didn't go sideways directly in front me (I had enough space to slow down and watch this ding dong bash up his nice pickup). He got under control a little ways into the farmer's field, after hopping the ditch, grill all full of dirt and grass, bumper bashed in, he continued driving to the next field access. How his vehicle managed to stay on its wheels going sideways down the highway is beyond me.

 

Women can't drive.

Unless they're truckers.

 

Two months after I started driving I was hit head on by a young girl. Luckily for her, I was empty and still accelerating from a turn so I was moving slow. She came around a curve I was approaching and into my lane. All I could see of her was the top of her head. Obviously, whatever was in her lap was much more important to her than driving.

I slammed on the brakes and moved right thinking as loudly as I could "LOOK UP YOU IDIOT!" All I could do was get the potential collision speed down as far as possible and give her as much room as possible to avoid me. There wasn't time to search around for the air horn and all it would have done is add to the noise of the collision given how quickly it happened.

I got the truck stopped just as she looked up and cut the wheel. She annihilated the front of her car on the driver side front of my truck. I suspect that the car was totaled, I never heard. She was shook up but seemed physically OK.

My truck was disabled in place with a pile of snow from her car in front of my bumper giving testimony that I was stopped and fully to the right when she hit me.

Here are my thoughts:

1) This accident did not happen because I was there; I just happened to be there when it did happen.

2) Better that she hit me in a big truck than some family in a Camry.

3) I hope she learned something from this and realizes how very lucky she was not to have killed someone.