:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

:: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 ::

I got into an accident on last Sunday.

It happened on my way to church that early afternoon. I was on the freeway, taking 110 south transition to the 405 south. If you've never been on the road, it's a fast, sweeping S-curve. Right when I entered that interchange some idiot in an Acura drifted into my lane just as I was about to pass. I hit my brakes and turned the wheel to try and avoid a collision. The good news was I avoided a collision. The bad news was, I lost control of my car and proceeded headfirst into an embankment. The car did a 180, slid a few yards, and somehow turned back around into the direction of traffic.

Fortunately, no one else crashed. At the speeds most drivers take that road, it was very possible that a car behind me could have easily plowed into my car as I was spinning. Even more fortunately, a driver saw what happened and pulled over to see if I needed any assistance. The guy waited until the tow truck and a CHP officer showed up to assist me. I got his business card so I'm probably going to buy that guy lunch or something.

As you might imagine, I was quite pissed. Not only because some f***ing idiot whose lack of expertise regarding rear-view mirrors, turn signals, and general rules of traffic made me wreck my car and in turn deal with the inconvenience of getting it repaired -- as well as facing the inevitable increase in my insurance premiums -- but being the quintessential, Gen-X, self-loathing type that I am, I was also berating myself for not being able to avoid spinning out. This wasn't the first time I've had to evade some pinhead cutting me off and I've never once lost control of my car. I've taken that transition road countless times in the past, and at even faster speeds and I've never once lost control of my car. I've taken that road at faster speeds, avoiding other lane drifters while sipping a grande coffee and I've never once lost control of my car, dammit.

(Geez, you think maybe I'm still feeling some residual anger from the incident?)

I'm very mindful of the fact that it could have been far worse. I thanked God that I wasn't injured, and that there were no other cars involved. There was a period of time a couple of years ago where some of my friends, within a short period of time, got into accidents that were far worse than mine and I couldn't help but realize just how lucky I was. Someone up there doesn't hate me, let me tell you.

While watching SportsCenter that night and I saw a replay of a Nascar race where a car lost control and spun out. I thought to myself, "I've always wondered what those look like from the driver's seat.. now I know."

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 12:20 AM [+] :: | 0 comments
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