Lucky tonight

[Rickster]

Well I dodged another bullet tonight.

I was on a 30 mph 4 lane road in town coming up to an intersection where I wanted to turn left, coming the opposite direction was a car in the far right lane with it's left turn signal on.

The car was almost stopped, but still moving in a kind of jerky motion, I thought this was strange and my senses went on high alert.

The car came to a complete stop, and I thought they were waiting for me and I was going to cross in front of them, but there was another car coming up behind them in the lane closest to me (their left lane) so I had to wait.

Something just didn't feel right, so I moved a few feet to the right so I was in the center of my lane & I stopped.

Just as the car in the center lane got to the rear bumper of the stopped car (in the right lane), the stopped car cranks there wheels hard to the left and lurches forward.

The car that was passing never had a chance to swerve before being struck, that a good thing for me, because stopped as I was, I would never have been able to get out of the way, the way it was, she was pushed over into my lane & missed me by about a foot, if I hadn't moved over before I stopped, I wouldn't be typing this now. No one was hurt.

The lady that was driving the car that had stopped in the right lane with her left turn signal on appeared to me to be drunk, but I never found out for sure because I left after giving my statement to the police & she was still trying to find her drivers license and proof of insurance.

It's a jungle out there guys and girls, keep your eyes open.

[SNAFU]

That right there would haunt me in my sleep. Thank goodness you're okay and kudos on your instinct.

[womper]

holy crap... good job dodging the bullet there

lesson to be learned here :
ride like everyone around you are gun-toting drunks

[tricker]

holy macaroni grill! Glad your ok

[Thundurburd]

Good thinking Rick. There's no substitute for knowing what you are doing. Glad you're Ok.

[Clint]

Way to catch it beforehand.

[Davecm203]

Good job.

[stp1971]

Good job ol chap!!! I definitely believe that riding bikes sensibl makes you an all around better driver. No more of the green light bursts of speed for me when the light changes green.

About a month ago "J", "P", and myself were out late one night doing the part time job when the light changed. I started rolling forward and out of instinct still scanning the intersection left and right even after doing so before I started I see a car rolling about 75 mph without a hint of stopping for their red light.

I stopped in the middle of the intersection right before I crossed his path and "J" was like what are you doing and about that time there goes the car speeding from right to left in front of our car.

She said "Oh my God,, they didn't even stop,, if you hadn't stopped when you did we would be dead."

Yep. I don't even roll through intersections anymore without scanning even as I go through them due to the fact that people run so many red lights and people just don't care.

Glad your senses were on over drive.

[Kooter]

Always trust your gut!

[scrimmer]

Wow! Very close one, glad you're OK. A good reminder for the rest of us.

[Rickster]

The strangest thing about the whole incident was having car parts raining down on me, it really brought home that fact that I was really, really close to a couple of big heavy objects bumping into each other.

The car that the drunk (I think) lady was driving was a Kia, and it just basically blew appart, the front bumper, hood, and left front fender were all laying in the street, I couldn't belive my ears when I heard her tell the cop "I think I can drive it home".

[pinky44]

Glad you dodged the dozy idiot.

[XoZe]

This is what I encountered the other day in a parking lot...luckily I was paying attention because the driver clearly wasn't. And I just happened to be testing out the camera mount! BTW, that horn you hear is the Stebel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g4Zyqz3NdE

[Rickster]

Good save, clearly your pipes didn't alert him.

[Apertureguy]

Originally Posted by Rickster

Good save, clearly your pipes didn't alert him.

LOL, nice one!

Yeah, when your "Spidey Senses" go off like that...its always better to listen and get the heck out of the way.

I'd rather have to drive around an accident, then be a part of one.

[Uncle B]

Had a small {Ford Ranger size} turn right signal on pull over to side of road at a driveway, then as I was passing {I moved across center line} pull back on roadway towards {I felt as if they were trying to hit me} me, hit their bright lights and accelerate up behind me getting as close as they could.

We were going into some tight curves so I opened the bike up some as we went into curve number two they ran a-little wide and slowed down some letting me open the gap between us up as we got through the curves I was 500 yards ahead of them, they didn't try to catch up.

[Atlas68]

Good to hear it turned out well for you Rickster.
Also a good reminder to all of us to keep our head in the game and ride defensively and in a proactive state of mind.

[Barbarian]

Originally Posted by Rickster

it just basically blew appart, the front bumper, hood, and left front fender were all laying in the street,

Welcome to modern automotive design, where everything crumples like tinfoil just to make the occupant that much safer in case they're a %%%%up.

Whatever happened to "takes a licking and keeps on ticking?"

[tricker]

Originally Posted by Barbarian

Welcome to modern automotive design, where everything crumples like tinfoil just to make the occupant that much safer in case they're a %%%%up.

Whatever happened to "takes a licking and keeps on ticking?"

its not cost effective for repair shops...

[Fishpart]

Crazy! Good save!