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

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Good luck because you escaped. But yeesh -- that's terrifying.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Yipes!! I'm glad you're OK!!

Of course, using his horn make him automagically in the right, right? </sarcasm>

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

He was moving very fast. Definitely scary.

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Hugs. I hate that -- I hate that shaky feeling, the whole thing.

I'm glad he didn't hit you.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Maybe he needed the horn because being male and driving a big truck weren't somehow enough to make him automagically in the right. In that case, hey!, something he and I would agree on!

What scares me is that if this had been an accident, it would be all he-said she-said. Whose light was green? Unless the person in the lane next to me appeared and offered testimony, it'd be one person's word against another. And the kind of person who leans on a horn when nearly smashing someone because he ran the red light is not exactly someone I figure would be honest in court. (Not that I think most people would be honest about this one, frankly.) So there's a big chance I'd get bad financial repercussions as well even though I'd done nothing wrong.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Me too. How confident are you that if it went to court he'd fess up to running the light? ...me neither.

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

The degree to which people run red lights in this city seems to me to be going up, and is quite scary. Every time I run a yellow light and then think, that was dumb; I'll do better next time, I look in my rear-view and see a car who trailed me through it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Traffic planners will often adjust the lag time between one light going red and a conflicting one going green for this sort of thing, but I suspect the drivers simply adjust their behavior in turn. In Boston (at least when I lived there) people count multiple cars through the red before they decide to stop. My boss at Saber got a ticket once for being number seven.

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Some bus companies are employing video cameras that turn on whenever a sensor detects unusual acceleration or impact, primarily to be able to identify whether their driver did anything wrong in an accident or near-miss.

It didn't occur to me when I first read about it, but I bet it won't be long before this technology is used in private cars, pointing outwards, so one can avoid he-said-she-said in these kind of circumstances.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

A camera that's always on and has the last, say, sixty seconds of video - and then will store it on impact - that'd be superb. Insurance companies might choose to offer a discount for it the way they (used to?) offer a discount for a third brake light or LoJack.

[jb98.livejournal.com]

You're very lucky! You could have been seriously injured or killed if he hit you. Glad you're OK. *hugz*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

He was coming from my right, so even if he T-boned me it's quite possible I'd have survived with minor injuries and my car would have been totaled.

Still, that would have been bad enough. I too am very glad I'm OK! Thanks!

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

Eeek scary! Glad you are ok! (I only put on lip gloss in the car and I do it when I am stopped.) And I wish cops would pull people over for running red lights. They claim they have better things to do, but then they hang out and smoke in front of convenience stores around here.

And how did you inhale a bee?

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you are safe. Traffic is starting to terrify me. Not so much when I'm driving, but when my loved ones (http://tsjafo.livejournal.com/2684.html) are on the road.

[wooddragon.livejournal.com]

Jeez, what a dangerous moron. Thank goodness he managed to miss you... Dork.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! As for the bee, I was out running (this was back when I could run) and breathing hard, and I just schnorked him right up my nose. I didn't know that's what it was until I blew my nose. I couldn't decide whether I'd used up a week's worth of bad luck by inhaling a bee or a week's worth of good luck that he didn't sting me inside my head.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh YIKES what a story. Yes, traffic is indeed scary, and often there's not a lot we can do to make ourselves safer in the face of that kind of driving.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad the timing was juuuuust right on that. I wasn't all the way into his lane by the time he came screaming through.

One thing that scares me is that he's probably *not* that bad a driver (compared to the general pool). I admit that right now I'm not too pleased to share a road with other human beings.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

Glad you're ok!

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Eek! Glad you are OK.

I know how those close-calls can make one really shakey.

[ckd]

Whew! I'm glad you didn't get hit.

I'd call it bad luck to encounter him outweighed by the good luck of not getting into an accident even once you did encounter him.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Doncha hate that shaky feeling? Ugh. Nothing for it but time, either. Wait for the post-adrenaline wibbles to fade.