Yesterday, happily driving along a country road at about 45mph, I saw ahead of me, a car coming out of a driveway. No problem, obviously she's going to stop when she gets to the road. Only she didn't, and I had to slam on anchors VERY sharply. I managed to stop my car probably about six inches short of her bonnet.
I was quite shaken up, but not shaking. Afterwards I wondered whether my adrenals helped in this situation or not. First time in my whole 78 years anything like this has happened, so have no previous example to compare with.
Any thoughts?
Written by
ChrisinNam
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It depends on your dose. I think if your adrenals hadn’t kicked in you’d have felt more than shaken. When mine we feeble something like that would have made me shakey, nauseated and weak for hours. If you are under 10mg, even if you don’t have that, take it easy for a couple of days just in case you’ve coped but don’t have much left in the tank for much else.
Daft bat!!! (Her not you of course!) You really do have to assume everyone else on the road is an idiot. Happened to me some years ago - elderly gent had stopped at a road junction as he should have and when I was about 20m from him he drove out in front of me, OH shouted, I braked and swerved but couldn't go far as there were vehicles coming in the other direction too - heaven only knows where he thought he was going. It was the driver's side wing that took the brunt for me - his older VW Polo just sat there and bits dropped off one at a time. When the local police chief arrived (only person left in the office, it had been a busy day) the guy tried to claim I'd been going too fast and was told in no uncertain terms that if I'd been going any faster he wouldn't have got off so lightly - it was a 50mph limit and I was well below that as I was about to turn left a hundred metres further on. It was all sorted out very simply - the German system was very simple, the police signed the documentation to say it was entirely his fault and his insurance took care of it all.
But you do get very shaken up - and you did very well to miss her.
I wouldn't want to take a test now - I think I would pass the driving part but I know I'd struggle with the video part of the theory test because I tried it but discovered I was clicking too early as I identified a potential hazard and was driving accordingly long before they thought I should! You know, like there is a vehicle parked on the side of the road further on - someone might open the door to get out, they might pull out to drive on, someone might start to cross from behind it so you let your foot off the accelerator a bit and pay attention in case someone is approaching from the other direction.
You describe feelings very similar to mine ! I gave up my license at 80 ( now 84 ) and have never regretted it. It was a great relief. it does depend where you live, I suppose. I learned to drive in London which, even then , was a nightmare. Now I live in Toronto , another traffic nightmare, but which has easy access to public transit.
That happened to me too a few months ago, although for me the first I knew about it was when a massive grey object (the other driver's car) slammed into me - she appeared from nowhere. Luckily it was a 30 mph limit and there was a speed camera, so I was def. doing no more than that. I was able to stop a few yards down the road, as did the other driver (thankfully) and also a witness driver. Luckily for me the other driver was extremely apologetic, but her only excuse was she had just come back from America and wasn't used to looking right, when turning left on to a main road!! The witness also gave me his name and number and said he would verify it wasn't my fault if necessary (it wasn't). My car was damaged on the panel by the petrol tank, but i was able to drive on home. The other driver rang me that same evening to say she had already organised the insurance etc.
Several weeks later i finally got my (11 year old) car back - it actually looked far better than it did before the accident, as the drivers insurers nominated garage had entirely replaced one side of the car and re-sprayed and given it a good clean out inside too, which save me a tedious summer chore..... I did however wonder if i was to blame in any way, as I was v.tired that evening and felt I should have noticed the car coming out of the side road. I also have R,arthritis and wonder if I could have reacted more quickly, but don't think that was the case as I did at least manage to quickly control the car from veering over to the other side of the road. As you indicate though, such incidences do really shake you up and I was actually quite relieved to have a break from driving for a few weeks, even if it was quite an inconvenience, although to be fair, the other driver's insurer did offer me a courtesy car, which I declined. Living in Cambridge, I tend to use my bike for most of the time anyway. I am now far more conscious though of what's going on at the periphery of any road I am driving on!
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