QOTD: The Closest Call You've Ever Had?
In a QOTD post last week, we opened up our memory banks and recalled the days of driver’s ed; the bumpy road we all took to become the car fans we are today. But the dangerous driving moments never end at the learner’s permit or license.
Today we want to know the closest call you’ve ever had.
The closest call your author’s ever had stands out above any other dangerous driving situations (thus far). I recalled it to a friend the other day, which is why we’re here right now. Probably the worst part of telling the story was that any crash would’ve been entirely my fault.
The year was circa 2007, the time was in the early evening, and the car was a 1997 Infiniti I30 (a fine car, by the way). Darkness was just beginning to fall as I approached a green light on US 50 in Indiana. I’d like to show you the intersection and how it looked at the time, but by 2008 (as old as Google Maps goes), it had been replaced with the ramp arrangement you see below. Coming to the intersection in the left lane, I was distracted by a view across the road.
Said view was of the old, closed-down Kroger where I used to work. It was where I parked my Audi 5000 so many times. The store had relocated shortly before, down the road a ways. But I had memories there, and they were enough to draw the eye. Realizing my eyes had drifted from the road, my vision snapped back forward — to see a nearly new (and hideous stepside) Toyota Tundra coming to a stop a few yards in front of me. That green light was apparently an old one, and must have turned red right the instant after I stopped looking. At the time, I’d guess I was traveling about 40 to 45 miles an hour.
Seemingly in slow motion, I gave a cursory glance over my right shoulder while jabbing my foot on the brakes. Seeing no car was there, I sawed at the wheel as the ABS pulsed under my foot in protest. The soft suspension prompted a nose dive to the left as I took the right lane, next to the Tundra. When the I30 came to a stop, its nose was level with that of the Tundra. Hands white knuckled on the big airbag wheel, I looked over slowly to the Tundra driver, who gave me a pretty perplexed “What the hell?” sort of look. Crash avoided. It would’ve been a serious one, to be sure.
Let’s hear about your closest call.
[Images: Nissan, Google Maps, Toyota]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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I've told this tale on here before, but it is still, by far, the closest call I have ever had. Southbound on I-495 in MA, around Andover. Mid-morning, just after some thunderstorms so the sun is out but the road is wet. 75mph moderate traffic. I'm about five car lengths or so behind a pickup in the left lane in my Saab 900SET. On the other side of the median, I see a big explosion of brown mud - I start braking. This resolves into a semi crossing the median (50' or so wide, bushes and small trees)! I get HARD on the brakes as the semi comes completely across the median and absolutely annihilates that pickup that was in front of me. Semi ends up across all three lanes of I-495, perpendicular to the road. I end up stopped about four feet from the side of the trailer. I duck across the passenger seat, absolutely certain I am about to be rear-ended right underneath that trailer. But amazingly, everyone got stopped around me. Was able to pick my way across the roadway and go the wrong way up an on ramp to get off the highway. The pickup truck was just disintegrated. I found out on the news that night that a car on the northbound side had hydroplaned into the semi and broke its steering axle. The poor driver was just along for the ride at that point. The guy in the pickup died on impact (no kidding, they probably had to suck him out of what was left with a shopvac). By some miracle, no other vehicles involved. Still gives me the shakes just thinking about it, and I can replay the whole thing in slow motion in my mind.
How'd I miss this one? Way back in the winter of '82-'83 my father had some legal research to do for a case (he was an attorney) in Colorado Springs and he asked me if I'd go with him to split the driving (he didn't like to fly) and being . We packed up the '81 Concord and headed out from Lakewood, OH to Colorado. Stopped for the night in Topeka, woke up the next morning to a budding winter storm. Heading west on I-70 the weather kept getting worse and worse and worse. Somewhere in the hinterlands while traveling at maybe 35mph I hit a spot where a road grader had cleaned the snow off the highway and exposed a nice ice patch which caused the Concord to immediately spin out. Came to a stop at a 90° angle to traffic... with a sliding 18 wheeler heading right for us! The Concord stopped right on said ice patch and it refused to move, the rear tire (no Posi on that "prices start at" special!) spinning in a vain hunt for traction. Somehow at about the last possible second it caught traction and spun out of the 18 wheeler's path with maybe a foot and a half to spare. Scared the living bajeebus out of my father and me.