Aseras

i'd have gotten the guys info at the least. that way when you find out you ripped something off the bottom of your car or need a 4 wheel alignment or all your rims are fsked, he can pay for it.

dynamho

The Mercedes guy needs to be reported to authorities with the truck driver as witness if possible. His apology seemed sincere, but whatever bad driving habits he has needs to be broken. So lucky nothing happened on the sidewalk. It could have been extremely messy.

My RX-8 saved my daughter's life. She was on the back seat. I was approaching 4-way intersection with 4 stop signs for each direction, with my flashers on to turn left. As I was stopped at the intersection, I see a full-size Chevy truck approaching the intersection from the left at nominal speed. Foolishly trusting the truck driver to have seen me and to heed the stop sign, I proceeded to turn left and I notice the truck isn't even slowing down. In fact, I hear the V8 roar and speed up. I quickly depress the clutch pedal, rev the engine, and drop the clutch pedal for extra power (no time to downshift), the Rex instantly springs to life with a slight oversteer tailslide and the truck roars by. From a bystander's point of view, it would have looked like a matador maneuver. I hear a delighted, "Wooo~. Do it again daddy." I was mentally debating whether to make a U-turn and chase the guy down, but I had a kid on board and decided against the confrontation (in contrast to my sentiment in the first paragraph). I kissed the car afterwards.

seattle

After talking to the Mercedes I drove for about 20 seconds in front of the salvage truck. I got off of the road and parked in a restaurant lot with my head spinning. As I sat there, I turned off the cruise control button I must have accidentally activated during the,… I want to say accident, but here I was sitting unscathed. An event maybe? An experience?

I turned off the car and did a body check both on my car and myself. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a scratch. I didn’t detect the smell of rubber or engine. Tires fine – no scrapes or other untidiness. Perfect paint job intact. There was just my rapidly pounding heart and the sound of traffic on the nearby street.

Holy crap. Holy crap. Holy crap.

I called my wife. I didn’t think she was going to pick up. Lately she hasn’t been. Our new phones have volume issues – as in they don’t ring, they try, but it’s sad. Unbelievably she picked up, and that’s the first thing I said to her, “Thank you for picking up.” Then, according to my wife, I babbled incoherently for a couple of minutes.

I kind of remember that. I remember thinking the whole time how all I really wanted to say was “Oh my god I can’t believe I am not dead” and I really didn’t think that was a proper phone conversation. So I babbled.

And pretty soon I calmed down, and then I began to appreciate the storm I had managed to survive.

I even started to feel a little cocky cause holy crap I could be tangled up in a heap of cars 5 blocks back. I should have been wrecked and sitting on the side of the road staring at my once beautiful RX-8. Instead I was now having a conversation with my wife about where we would go to dinner when I got home.

My gig had been canceled. Apparently I failed to hear my phone ring telling me we were switching nights.

My drive into the city had been meaningless. In order to get back on the freeway, I just had to take the same route I had come by. I was going to drive right past the scene of the incident. Something grabbed at my chest the closer I got to that particular sidewalk. I wanted to be sick as I noticed couples with kids and old folks out for walks along very similar sidewalks to the one I had just torn across.

It was a beautiful evening last night. The air was warm. The sky had just a few clouds. People were taking advantage of the nice weather. Mowing lawns. Taking out garbage. Hanging out. The realization that I could have killed someone earlier was very strong.

Did I carefully look at the sidewalk before I veered onto it? How carefully? Maybe I should have let the Mercedes run into me in order to avoid the possibility that pedestrians would be hit.

What if a kid had darted down some house steps right in front of my car? What if someone had backed out of his or her garage. What if my perception failed me and I didn’t look at the sidewalk close enough and I had driven over somebody. My previous cockiness was gone. I felt very small, and my stomach was sour.
I realized I was never in control. If someone had been on that sidewalk really bad things would have happened.

Then I drove past my particular sidewalk.

I am a good driver, but really looking at how narrow the strip of concrete and curb was that I traversed, made me want to cry (and puke at the same time). I should have crashed. The tires of the car should have slipped on one of those curb dips, and I should have rammed nose first into the rock wall, or gone careening into the salvage truck.

I had to pull over to catch my breath again.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful.

We had pasta.

dynamho

Nice work keeping in control. So happy everything turned out all right. If there's a parallel universe according to our alternative probabilities, I do not want to see it in your case.

staticlag

wow, I got chills just reading that!

Sorry about that!

JamesBaud

The heck with the RX-8. You would have been safer driving that truck!

zeblien

Wrong. You would have been saver on another road.

allmotorRX8

wow, what everyone else said, glad you are ok

Clavius

Damn!!
Thats yeah.. whoah!
And I must also point out. Video Games do save lives!!
Great story and I hope you never have to tell another one like this for a long time.

dynamho

Yes, I would have, but I was on the receiving end.

If I were driving the exact model Chevy truck, and that Chevy truck T-boned me at that speed, I probably would have been smacked into a tailspin or rolled over instead of avoiding him completely with the RX-8.

Or perhaps that truck driver doesn't like Japanese sports coupes and would have stopped if he saw another Chevy.