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  • Close Calls on the Road

    I just had a lucky escape on the way home today. I was coasting down a main road at about 46 and and plowed right into a guy trying to dash across, he went one way I went the other and the bike went to the middle.
    This road is usually full of buses and i was expecting to be hit by one of those behind me. Amazingly enough both of us did not get run down and only a few scrapes and bruises. Just some scratches and a lost wing mirror on the bike.

    The guy who helped me up said that it was the luckiest thing he had ever seen.

    So sitting at home I was thinking what close calls have you wabbits had when driving?
    For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

  • #2
    On the route I normally drive home from work, there is a stretch that is a long down hill, and at the end of the hill there is a slight right bend into a college campus. A traffic light sits 3 blocks up, so coming down the hill one tends to slow down around the bend (Speed Limit goes from 45 mph to 25 mph). I came around the bend one day to find traffic from the light backed all the way up to the bend. Luckily I was driving a Wrangler that had no issue jumping the curb on the sidewalk to avoid rear-ending the last car in line--and no college students on the sidewalk to eat bumper.
    "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach...just make sure you thrust upward through his ribcage."

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    • #3
      My wife

      http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/spo...er-3-fact.html

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      • #4
        On an military Exercise in Germany a track come completely off my vehicle at about 30-40mph, we ended up feet from a quarry with a 200' drop

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        • #5
          Was involved in a near truck plunge in Guate several years ago. Probably a lot more near misses that I dont see as I do a lot of my 3rd world land travel at night.

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          • #6
            Smashed my motorcycle into the side of a car that pulled out in front of me and then got cutoff himself and had to stop. BAM! Flew over the car, did a complete flip and bounced off the far side of the car and landed on my feet(kinda). Totalled the bike and the car(pushed the door post in about 18 inches, was unrepairable). Speedometer on the bike was stuck at about 40mph. I was going about 50mph when the "oh shit" started and i guess I got it slowed down that far before impact.

            What was close about that call? I almost got hurt! Only had couple bruises on my arms where the bike windshield hit and a bruise on my ass where I landed on the car.

            And that was one of many close calls. Got my patrol car shot at twice, my jeep shot at once, wrecked 4 motorcyles and 1 ATV and my jeep got ran over by a tank once.

            The worst one wasn't on the road, but being in the path of a crashing plane. Saw it coming but it took a second for reality to make the legs move. Me and another guy missed the edge of the dipping wing by about 10 feet. No one on the plane survived and it took out an observer sitting in a jeep at the end of the strip. That was a day when you feel great because your alive, but awful for the ones that aren't.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by 7thsfsniper View Post
              Smashed my motorcycle into the side of a car that pulled out in front of me and then got cutoff himself and had to stop. BAM! Flew over the car, did a complete flip and bounced off the far side of the car and landed on my feet(kinda). Totalled the bike and the car(pushed the door post in about 18 inches, was unrepairable). Speedometer on the bike was stuck at about 40mph. I was going about 50mph when the "oh shit" started and i guess I got it slowed down that far before impact.

              What was close about that call? I almost got hurt! Only had couple bruises on my arms where the bike windshield hit and a bruise on my ass where I landed on the car.

              And that was one of many close calls. Got my patrol car shot at twice, my jeep shot at once, wrecked 4 motorcyles and 1 ATV and my jeep got ran over by a tank once.

              The worst one wasn't on the road, but being in the path of a crashing plane. Saw it coming but it took a second for reality to make the legs move. Me and another guy missed the edge of the dipping wing by about 10 feet. No one on the plane survived and it took out an observer sitting in a jeep at the end of the strip. That was a day when you feel great because your alive, but awful for the ones that aren't.
              Well if I'm every in Misery, I'd buy you a beer. From the other end of the bar. And stay 50m from you at all times. :))
              "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach...just make sure you thrust upward through his ribcage."

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              • #8
                I was on H-Cut, a road in...we'll say a "suburb" of Samarra, Iraq... in a marketplace.

                Unknown to my driver, there was a spot of fresh cement in the center of the road ahead, the vehicle ahead of us swerved around it and 3 seconds later it detonated straight up in the air about 25 feet to our front (as we started to swerve around it).

                Had it not been seen and we drove over it, I would have been in pieces at an altitude of about 75-125 feet.
                "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach...just make sure you thrust upward through his ribcage."

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                • #9
                  Skyline Boulevarde

                  Originally posted by 7thsfsniper View Post
                  Smashed my motorcycle into the side of a car that pulled out in front of me and then got cutoff himself and had to stop. BAM! Flew over the car, did a complete flip and bounced off the far side of the car and landed on my feet(kinda). Totalled the bike and the car(pushed the door post in about 18 inches, was unrepairable). Speedometer on the bike was stuck at about 40mph. I was going about 50mph when the "oh shit" started and i guess I got it slowed down that far before impact.
                  On my way to Alice's Restaurant in La Honda about 0630 one glorious Sunday morning. I came around a (fast) blind curve to see a maverick crossed over the centerline on my side. Oh Crap! I was leaned waaay over into the turn, had just enough time to roll back the throttle and pop the bike up. I hit the side mirror with my knee, went down, slid for about 75 yards, then a$$hole and elbows till finally landed on my feet facing backwards! The bike kept going. Broke my helmet, holed my leathers and totally trashed my BMW R90S. I had it less than a month. Crap! I loved that bike.:(

                  The car was full of wasted hippies coming by from a concert in SF. Been there down that. They FLEW straight off the road, which dropped off about 20' through the TOP of a tree and landed in a field with four flat tires, no intact glass but no major injuries. I asked about the car and the CHP walked me over to where they'd left the road and told me to look up. There was a perfectly outlined square through the trees over twenty feet off the ground!! I started laughing my ass off. Must have scared the crap out them.:))
                  Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
                  (Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by ShawnG View Post
                    I was on H-Cut, a road in...we'll say a "suburb" of Samarra, Iraq... in a marketplace.

                    Unknown to my driver, there was a spot of fresh cement in the center of the road ahead, the vehicle ahead of us swerved around it and 3 seconds later it detonated straight up in the air about 25 feet to our front (as we started to swerve around it).

                    Had it not been seen and we drove over it, I would have been in pieces at an altitude of about 75-125 feet.
                    Now thats a close call!!!

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by 7thsfsniper View Post
                      Smashed my motorcycle into the side of a car that pulled out in front of me and then got cutoff himself and had to stop. BAM! Flew over the car, did a complete flip and bounced off the far side of the car and landed on my feet(kinda). Totalled the bike and the car(pushed the door post in about 18 inches, was unrepairable). Speedometer on the bike was stuck at about 40mph. I was going about 50mph when the "oh shit" started and i guess I got it slowed down that far before impact.

                      What was close about that call? I almost got hurt! Only had couple bruises on my arms where the bike windshield hit and a bruise on my ass where I landed on the car.

                      And that was one of many close calls. Got my patrol car shot at twice, my jeep shot at once, wrecked 4 motorcyles and 1 ATV and my jeep got ran over by a tank once.

                      The worst one wasn't on the road, but being in the path of a crashing plane. Saw it coming but it took a second for reality to make the legs move. Me and another guy missed the edge of the dipping wing by about 10 feet. No one on the plane survived and it took out an observer sitting in a jeep at the end of the strip. That was a day when you feel great because your alive, but awful for the ones that aren't.
                      If you are planning a trip to the UK please give me plenty of warning:))

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by sappersgt View Post
                        On my way to Alice's Restaurant in La Honda about 0630 one glorious Sunday morning. I came around a (fast) blind curve to see a maverick crossed over the centerline on my side. Oh Crap! I was leaned waaay over into the turn, had just enough time to roll back the throttle and pop the bike up. I hit the side mirror with my knee, went down, slid for about 75 yards, then a$$hole and elbows till finally landed on my feet facing backwards! The bike kept going. Broke my helmet, holed my leathers and totally trashed my BMW R90S. I had it less than a month. Crap! I loved that bike.:(

                        The car was full of wasted hippies coming by from a concert in SF. Been there down that. They FLEW straight off the road, which dropped off about 20' through the TOP of a tree and landed in a field with four flat tires, no intact glass but no major injuries. I asked about the car and the CHP walked me over to where they'd left the road and told me to look up. There was a perfectly outlined square through the trees over twenty feet off the ground!! I started laughing my ass off. Must have scared the crap out them.:))
                        Ouch!!! F*****g Hippie cagers!! Motorcycles I now miss.

                        1985 Honda PC800(that was the T-bone)
                        1984 Honda Shadow(lay down on slick road, hit a tree)
                        1976 Yamaha 650(railroad track laydown, but that didn't kill it. Just made it a POS)

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                        • #13
                          I lost traction on a mountain road. There was some sand/gravel. I made a left turn but the car went straight. It went nose first into the side of the mountain. The other side was...I wouldn't say a sheer cliff straight down, but I probably would not have survived. I have had this fear of mountain driving ever since.
                          "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                            I lost traction on a mountain road. There was some sand/gravel. I made a left turn but the car went straight. It went nose first into the side of the mountain. The other side was...I wouldn't say a sheer cliff straight down, but I probably would not have survived. I have had this fear of mountain driving ever since.
                            I would take brick wall at moderate ground speeds instead of ground at terminal velocity anyday!;)

                            Lucky you! 50/50 chance you came out ahead on!

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                            • #15
                              Oh, here's another one that just happened about 6 weeks ago. I was driving home from my friend's house in Riverside. It was Chinese New Year's eve. I had to go home to hang out with family. It was around 7pm, heavy traffic, and I fell asleep for a split second. My car drifted about 1/3 of the way into the next lane. Fortunately there was no one there at the time. There were many cars in front of me and behind me.

                              I am thankful I'm still alive today.
                              "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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