luck be a lady

[lilamp]

a man tried to get run over by my car on my way to work this morning.

he was ambling across university ave. in the middle of the block, hands in his pockets, looking straight ahead, maintaining conscientious obliviousness to the motor vehicles on all sides. i didn't see him coming, because the car ahead of me to my right had enough room that they didn't have to hit their brakes, so he popped seemingly out of nowhere in front of me. adding to the excitement, the road was slightly wet due to the sprinklers busily watering the new grass on the recently renovated median. another car was coming up in the right lane, so there i was, car to my right, median to my left, crazy man directly in front of me, and me zipping along at a bit more than the recommended 25mph.

i have now experienced antilock brakes for the first time, and am glad to say that they work fine.

i think i came within a couple feet of taking out crazy man's legs and having to endure a painful lawsuit. (not to mention the emotional consequences of running someone over...)

i slammed on my brakes and swerved as best i could in the limited time and space available to me. i came to a stop just behind crazy man's knees. i looked in my rear view mirror and was relieved to see the car behind me slowing to a stop instead of skidding into my rear end. i continued on my way, amazed that everyone had emerged without so much as a scratch.

what a way to start the morning.

Comments

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Well, good that you're getting your money's worth out of the WRX, or something.

[anemone.livejournal.com]

Oh my. that must have been scary.

[dethtonge.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I was driving along Brannan St. in SF and a woman walked out in the middle of the block to cross the street left-to-right. She was about six seconds in front of me when I spotted her. She saw me too and stopped before reaching the double-yellow, but apparently I was expected to stop for her because she flipped me off when I didn't and could be seen uttering some invective as I passed by and afterwards.

I was so close to slamming on my brakes and starting a shouting match, but I had to get where I was going because someone was waiting for me. It screwed up my morning too.

Glad your brakes are in good shape. I hope when the day comes that such an idiot gambles with his/her own life, mine will be good too.

[reeser.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you came out unscathed. People can get themselves into a lot of danger trying to avoid running over someone.

[lilamp]

yeah, a likely outcome to a scenario like this is a multiple vehicle accident in which the crazy man doesn't get hurt, but other people do, and the crazy man whose fault it is, who was attempting to perpetrate fraud, gets off scott free (albeit without any payoff). much suckage.

east bay..

[ghosthacked.livejournal.com]

sucks.

peninsula, baby!

[jilflirt.livejournal.com]

Whoa! That sounds very scary. Glad you're ok. Yay for your car.

Accident avoidance technique

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Lila -- good to hear you didn't run into the guy. For future reference, btw, you shouldn't swerve while braking, even with anti-lock brakes. The right approach (given anti-lock brakes) is slam on the brakes, brake in a *STRAIGHT* line, while you're braking, look for a place to swerve to (while continuing straight), and if you get to a point where you realize you can't stop before hitting the obstacle, RELEASE THE BRAKE, and then swerve. You don't want to be braking while turning because your wheels will be using up their traction braking and you won't have any traction left to turn, so you'll likely oversteer (your back end will swing out) -- if you release the brake the car will steer the way you want it to when you swerve.