I was coming back from getting my friend from work, had dropped him off, and was mainly concerned with getting home with my gas light on empty. I was driving down Man O'War road (a big circle on the outskirts of Lexington, one I live right off of) in the rain, when a fire department ambulance came out of one of the side roads as I was very, very close to the intersection already.
I didn't have time to brake gently, and if I went right on through we could have collided. So I broke hard, but they locked, and it sent me into a wide 270-degree spin in the middle of the intersection, going into the oncoming side (there were no cars coming, thankfully), and I narrowly avoided hitting the median on the way back to my side of the road. The ambulance waited for me to start back up again and show I was okay by moving back the other sixty degrees, and then went on.
I shook the rest of the way home. I'm glad A wasn't in the car. He would have utterly freaked, and I'd rather if I died in an accident not to take anyone with me--and YKWIA would never forgive me. I have to admit I did alright at the time--it was just afterwards where I was a bit of a wreck, but I managed to hold it together until I got home. I parked the car and could not get out of it soon enough.
I'm going to curl up in my unmoving bed and go to sleep. It's not 100% safe (storms could rip the building up around me, I suppose, or a car could crash through) but those are so infinitesimal in probability, I'm willing to take my chances. Good night.
Born, like other comic book characters, out of an otherwise trivial but life-changing animal bite, the Rabid Librarian seeks out strange, useless facts, raves about real and perceived injustices, and seeks to meet her greatest challenge of all--her own life.
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Showing posts with label Scared Shitless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scared Shitless. Show all posts
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Close encounters of the drunk driver kind
I was ferrying a friend home from work tonight when a black sports car without headlights on came flying down the road, went up on the median, struck something, then bounced off and continued down the road. The something turned out to be a respectably heavy sign that went across the median and landed right in front of my car. Thankfully it didn't go airborne into the windshield and I was able to stop before running into it. I took a chance, got out of the car, and moved the sign out of the road. A headlight from the other car lay there on my side of the median.
What I didn't see until a guy came running up to me with a flashlight asking me if I'd seen the other car was that the driver had ploughed into a car up at the light, sending them careening onto the kerb on our side of the road (I think they had been turning). Glass was everywhere, and their car was most certainly totalled (the wheel was no longer on the axle, really). The remarkable thing was they weren't hurt, beyond some bruising, 'cause he must have run into them full tilt. Another witness said the guy who hit them was bleeding when he went by them. They had to back up quickly about 100 yards to manage not to be hit by either car, apparently. I told the police what I knew. Last I heard they'd caught the car, had one person in custody and were looking for another who fled on foot.
On my way home, I saw the remains of another accident on Man O'War. It is apparently the scary drunken idiots' night. Maybe it's because the UK vs. Louisville game is tomorrow and people are drinking early--I saw plenty of tailgating going on when I drove by UK. I'm 99.9% he was raving drunk. I am so glad to be home. I poured out a libation of honey and wine to thank Her for our escape. A few seconds and it could have been so much worse for us. I was really calm through the whole thing. I'm pretty calm now, for that matter. 'Oh, someone tried to kill us and anyone else in his way.' But it's still a little disconcerting.
What I didn't see until a guy came running up to me with a flashlight asking me if I'd seen the other car was that the driver had ploughed into a car up at the light, sending them careening onto the kerb on our side of the road (I think they had been turning). Glass was everywhere, and their car was most certainly totalled (the wheel was no longer on the axle, really). The remarkable thing was they weren't hurt, beyond some bruising, 'cause he must have run into them full tilt. Another witness said the guy who hit them was bleeding when he went by them. They had to back up quickly about 100 yards to manage not to be hit by either car, apparently. I told the police what I knew. Last I heard they'd caught the car, had one person in custody and were looking for another who fled on foot.
On my way home, I saw the remains of another accident on Man O'War. It is apparently the scary drunken idiots' night. Maybe it's because the UK vs. Louisville game is tomorrow and people are drinking early--I saw plenty of tailgating going on when I drove by UK. I'm 99.9% he was raving drunk. I am so glad to be home. I poured out a libation of honey and wine to thank Her for our escape. A few seconds and it could have been so much worse for us. I was really calm through the whole thing. I'm pretty calm now, for that matter. 'Oh, someone tried to kill us and anyone else in his way.' But it's still a little disconcerting.
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