i've been lucky in that during my 10 yrs of driving, i've never been in a car accident. well, kind of. i've had 2 people back into me, and lately, 2 more people come very close to backing into me. how strange -- does this happen to others often? here's the play-by-play:
- july 2002, norcross, georgia. back home in georgia before i left for college. i was waiting in the designated left turning lane (seen to the right of the google map below) at position #2. the woman ahead of me was waaay in the middle of traffic (center of map below), waiting to turn. yet, when the light changed from yellow to red, she didn't turn. cars to our right started to cross the intersection, but she was so far in the middle of the road that she was in their way. they honked at her. so, naturally, instead of turning left, she tried to retreat back into her turning lane by reversing into me. before she hit me, i frantically tried to honk, but my 88 honda's horn buttons were not in the center like most cars; they were 4 tiny buttons on the outer center pad. the funniest thing is that after hitting me, she refused to get out of her car and exchange info. she spoke almost no english and gave me her phone #, which had 8 digits.
View Larger Map - september 2002, melbourne, florida. during my first semester at florida tech. i was driving my good friend francisco to a local check cashing place. while waiting to exit the parking lot, the car in front of me saw a bicyclist approaching from the right. the car was blocking the sidewalk path, so he reversed into me, despite my repeated honking. this is the parking lot we were exiting:
View Larger Map - october, 2009, quechee gorge, vermont. as mentioned in my last post, i went on a solo sight-seeing road trip. i got away from the city life for a few days, but apparently i couldn't get away from crazy drivers trying to hit me. quechee gorge is a huge gorge, and there is an overpass bridge which allows everyone to look at the gorge. it's a tiny bridge, and there are crosswalks both before and after it. toooons of people were on the bridge, and cars were very respectful/cautious of pedestrians on this tiny road. apparently they weren't cautious of other cars though.
i was trying to leave the gravel parking lot which was located immediately before the bridge and the crosswalks. i waited for the slow-moving cars to clear before turning onto the bridge road. i started to pull out, but the last car just kind of stopped prematurely before the crosswalk. so, i'm half out of the parking lot, half on the road, waiting to fully pull-out as we are in this stop-sign-type place. but yea, why did the car in front of me stop? he wasn't even quite at the crosswalk section yet. i was just inches behind him as i saw his reverse lights come on. flashbacks from 7 yrs ago came back to me. i know how to handle this situation. the driver started to reverse FAST into me, as if he was trying to back into the exit-only direction of the parking lot. he clearly had no idea that i was exiting the parking lot, and maybe he was just trying to gain clearance before making an illegal u-turn. eitherway, i held down my horn and simultaneously threw the car into reverse as fast as i could. i stepped on the gas pedal hard. really hard. our cars reversed together, really fast, while being just inches from one another. it was like synchronized ice skating or something, without the ice skating. i admit, i'm not an amazing driver, for i'm not that great at parallel parking, and many city drivers are better than i. in that i'm too cautious at times and don't change lanes as carefree as others. with that said, i gotta say though that this stunt was pretty slick, and i felt like i did some maneuver from a movie. my heart was racing big time. luckily, i avoided getting hit.
the parking lot i was exiting:
View Larger Map november, 2009, boston, ma. i was leaving my apartment's parking lot. the exit is a narrow 1 lane passage that feeds into a neighborhood street. exiting requires making a sharp left turn, and to be careful not to hit all of the cars that are packed in like sardines on the side of the road. as i made the left turn, someone was trying parallel park into me. there was no way i could reverse back into the narrow passage in a bourne-identity-esque manner that i did previously. so, i relied on my horn. it was a close call, but they didn't hit me.
the alleyway from which i exited, and to the right is the spot in which the car was trying to parallel park:
View Larger Map
