Posted: 2/17/2011 10:54:11 AM EDT
Last night on my 30 mile ride home from work about 4 miles until i was home i barely evaded a bull moose while driving my sisters 2000 Mercury Cougar (its small!!) it all happened like this...Driving along while im in my long ride home "trance" (i say trance because thats really what happens, i just concentrate on the road and think about whatever pops into my mind, it really interesting sometimes ) and right as i am thinking about a quote i heard today ( As for my sword and spear, we will serve the throne, but never the man that sits upon it) and into my field of vision comes A FUCKING BULL MOOSE!! It really amazes me at how many things process in your mind during times like these and instantly all I could picture in my mind is my car taking out its legs and it crushing the top of the car. I instinctivly ducked down a little bit to where i could still see the road but be a little safer if it did hit me. Of course i stepped on the breaks but i was going 70 and it had been snowing a little bit so i slid a little bit. As I am sliding my back end turns to the left and i over correct and am going to go into it and it would impact on my drivers side and right before i hit him my tires catch on unicy pavement and the car finds purchase and zooms tires squealing right around the moose and i slammed on the brakes and i sit there for bout 5 seconds slowly sliding back up in my seat and staring straight forward with both my hands on the wheel and my mouth wide open. And then it really dawned on me at in the span of about 2 seconds all that had just happened and i was almost in shock at how my mind had processed all that information in such a calm and efficient manner. Does anyone else get these weird calms come over them when staring down the face of death? If i wouldve hit the thing it most certainly wouldve spelt death out for me in caps...SHare your stories
Thanks-MMOW |
|
I had something similar happen to me about twenty years ago - I was driving a Honda Accord hatchback on the Massachusetts Turnpike at about 1 AM during a heavy rainstorm, going at a normal highway speed. At the base of a good-sized hill I must have hit a large puddle of standing water, because my car started hydroplaning and I lost control. I must have been able to do at least some braking as I started spinning towards the left, crossing three lanes of the highway, because I must have been doing less than about 30 mph when I hit the concrete bridge abutment pretty much head on. The car bounced back after striking the concrete, and that probably helped me (and the car) to survive the encounter.
Somehow, even though I was expecting to be DRT, I was pretty calm as the whole thing took place, even though I had a pretty good adrenaline dump afterwards when I realized that I was still alive and that, even though the front end was pretty well mashed up, I could still drive the thing. Nobody passed me on the highway for several minutes, and so I figured that it would be safer to drive it and get off of the highway. There was a hotel right at the next exit, where I got off the highway, but they had no vacancies, and so I got right back on the highway and drove another seventy five miles and stopped at my parents' house. The next morning when they saw the car, they were amazed that I was alive, and that I was able to drive the thing after the crash. So, yes, I understand how you might have calmly gone through the very trying episode that you described... |