Bad luck or good luck?

[cjsmith]

I almost got creamed a few minutes ago by a guy in a white truck running a red light. (According to one of my friendsfriends I am more at fault than someone who runs red lights, because he hates women who put on makeup in cars. (Note that I was not, nor have I ever, put on makeup while driving a car.) But that's neither here nor there.) Because the timing was just right, or because when he leaned on the horn he ALSO hit the brakes, or whatever, he didn't actually hit me. It was very close and then he was gone, zooming off to make a left onto Central.

Bad luck to encounter him at all, or good luck to be spared a new car purchase and probable injury?

Sorta like the time I inhaled a bee but didn't get stung.

I'm still a little shaky.

Comments

I seem to think I may have told you this story before. If so, apologies!

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

I hate people that have trained themselves to reach for the horn first and do everything else later. About 10 years ago, I was walking across a street with the green and a woman coming the opposite way sped up (without looking) to make the left while it was still green and found herself coming directly at me. For the sake of my mental health, I will not go into such detail as the fact that it was 11 o'clock in the morning and I was wearing a bright red winter coat, because I just have to accept that she never looked. :)

But, anyway, there she is, doing 20-25 mph through a turn and she finds me in front of her. She had a number of options available to her, including: 1) stopping, 2) turning and going straight, and 3) turning and hitting a parked car instead of hitting a person. She even could have panicked and completely let go of the wheel and the car would have straightened out to avoid me. What she actually DID was take one hand off the wheel and use it to blow the horn while her other hand continued to hold the wheel and steer directly toward me. And, since I chose not to immediately evolve wings and fly out of the way, I got hit.

No big deal, I walked away. But to this day I am really careful about honking at people. It's not so much that I mind being rude, I rather enjoy it. :) But I have to caution myself that I might be training myself to do something useless in an emergency when what I really need to do is think.

Regardless, though, I am glad you were okay. :)

Nope, that story was new to me!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the horn reflex has grown out of the overwhelming need to WIN or to BE RIGHT regardless of best outcome. Avoiding the accident really is secondary to insisting that the other guy is in the wrong.

Either that or people are way stupider than I like to think.

I'm glad you walked away from that one. Yikes. Scary! Did she at least stop to offer help? From that snippet of story she doesn't seem like the type, but I never know.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

I really think the horn reflex is just a matter of people giving in to their desire to express themselves. Somebody cuts you off, honk the horn while slowly letting up on the gas. Somebody pulls out of a side street without room, honk the horn while you slowly apply the brakes. By the time you're actually in a situation where you need to act quickly, honking the horn instead is just a habit.

That's not everybody, I'm sure, but that's what I've always tried to guard against in my own driving.

I had no chance to get out of the way, so I got knocked over and rolled a few times. She did stop and seemed genuinely upset. Once I'd picked myself up and determined I could still walk, I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. She did offer me a ride to the hospital, at which point I believe I laughed at her. :) I don't think I quite told her off, which is as much a measure of how shaken up I was as anything. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I think I've guarded against that so effectively that I can't really honk the horn quickly if I want to. I stomp on the brakes and I cuss and later I say to myself "you wimp, you didn't even beep at him".

I'm glad you weren't badly injured. Laughing at her offer of a ride is pretty good in the tell-off department if you think about it! Too bad you were too shaken to say you'd really rather not ride with her, thanks all the same.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Too bad you were too shaken to say you'd really rather not ride with her, thanks all the same.

I know, I should have been like "Excuse me, I've seen you drive for two seconds and you managed to hit somebody!" But instead I just said I was okay and started walking away. I didn't even think to get a license plate number or anything, although the crossing guard on the corner did. Luckily, there was no major damage, because I'm not normally that much of an idiot. :)

I used to honk a lot more than I do. It's practically the norm in Philadelphia. But I've tried to stop myself here, since it seems so much more rude when other people don't. :) Plus Kim thinks my horn sounds wimpy, so she's constantly mocks me. I'll honk and she'll start pretending to be my horn in this whiny little voice: "Excuuuuuuse me... could you pleeeease move out of the way, sir.... excuuuuuuuse me...." It really takes away from the moment. ;)