The Close Scrape Chronicles

The daily drive presents its challenges. Here was mine yesterday. Left the office a little early to attend a evening event. Came very close to having a fine smash up, but Lauren (the passenger), Beemie, and I managed unscathed. I had to choose between possibly T-boning a car turning left across my travel path or a hard right turn. I chose the right turn. Only damage was my brain cells.

Picture online - same as below if you can't see it.

Well done!
Aren't you glad you weren't driving an SUV?

I know my own drivers ed had an optional "extreme" (or something like that) driving hour where we got to take the car out and accelerate as hard as possible, but also brake as hard as possible, brake hard while turning, etc etc. It was invaluable, especially when the teacher told me that I should know how to do this with any car I drive often.

Knowing the limits of my car, especially how hard I can crank the wheel, has saved me from at least 2 major wrecks so far. 3 other major wrecks have been saved by always watching my mirrors and in a split second knowing exactly where my car can be as an alternative position to my current one, without hitting another car.

So no damage to beemie? It looks as if you turned onto a road, but it's hard to tell from satellite

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Earendil
Well done!
Aren't you glad you weren't driving an SUV?

I know my own drivers ed had an optional "extreme" (or something like that) driving hour where we got to take the car out and accelerate as hard as possible, but also brake as hard as possible, brake hard while turning, etc etc. It was invaluable, especially when the teacher told me that I should know how to do this with any car I drive often.

Knowing the limits of my car, especially how hard I can crank the wheel, has saved me from at least 2 major wrecks so far. 3 other major wrecks have been saved by always watching my mirrors and in a split second knowing exactly where my car can be as an alternative position to my current one, without hitting another car.

So no damage to beemie? It looks as if you turned onto a road, but it's hard to tell from satellite

Hi Earendil,

No damage to Beemie or pasengers. Yes, I did turn on a road. Yes, I'm super glad that Beems is not an SUV.

Thanks, Kelly

glad to hear you made it out safely. the e30s are quite nimble, even in stock form.

i thought this was going to be a story about scraping the bottom of your car on the ground or something, haha.

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daniel
glad to hear you made it out safely. the e30s are quite nimble, even in stock form.

i thought this was going to be a story about scraping the bottom of your car on the ground or something, haha.

Hi D, Yes, it would be a good title for scraping bottom. I did not think of that. The hard thing about driving in my neck of the woods is we have many visitors from all over the world. Naturally, the visitors are unfamiliar with the roads and such. Everyone wants to see the Golden Gate Bridge which is about 1/2 mile south of this street intersection. Defensive driving is a fact of life. I'm still questioning whether making the right turn was the absolute best choice. I do know that it's unlikely that another car would be stopped in Position #3. I did not see any pedestrians when I began braking or turning; it's also unlikely for a pedestrian to walk in this area but not impossible. My other choice could have been to assume the red car would stop and then swerve to the left around the car. I think it is impossible to know the best decision. The good news is that all was fine in the end. I'm beginning to think that T-intersections are more treacherous than standard intersections.

At any rate, have a great day. Kelly

Glad everything turned out well Kelly, those instant to instant decisions can be mind boggling, as Tyler says, practice is the only way you get better at it other than racing.

I have the same influx of tourist's here too in the summer, some days are a true freeforall

Cheers, Rick