![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This morning, on my way to work, I was scared silly. I was going along Stafford Road (which is a 45 zone there) when someone rolled up to the end of one of the streets, slowing neatly down, and - swung right through it in a left turn across my path, maybe 4 car-lengths in front of me, maybe a bit more or less. NOT much room.
I managed to brake, swing out and around and back into my lane, and he hit his brakes too or that maneuver wouldn't've worked. I had nowhere else to go except the ditch or into his car. (The way he was turning, he blocked my ability to swing into the other lane of the street he was coming from - he was cutting across it - that would have been dubious when braking from 45 anyway.)
No harm done, except to my nerves (and maybe his). But it could have been much worse. Luckily, there was no oncoming traffic. I am not sure if my brain processed that fact or not in choosing its course of action - as has been the case in every other accident or near-accident I've been in, I reacted without recording every step of the process or even most of the data. I assume that, had he failed to brake, I would have continued into the opposite ditch, but I'm really not sure if my brain had kept that in processing or not. I may be being overly optimistic.
Scary. Really freaking scary. Fortunately it was a nice, clear, dry day, so I didn't have to fight a wet road surface. I am not sure the over-and-back swerve while braking would have been doable, had the pavement been wet.
By the time I was back in my lane and glanced in my rear-view mirror, he had finished his left turn and was driving off, apparently not considering stopping or checking on me (perhaps because I kept moving and ended up on the road, but it still sort of upset me). But he has to have noticed me, because if he had kept going as he was, I would NOT have swerved around him while staying on the road. Either he would have hit me as I went past him, or I'd have been in the ditch.
Gotta say, my nerves didn't need that jolt. Really, really didn't. The rest of the drive to the new office was MUCH more uneventful, and I really like the new office, but I didn't need that bit of excitement in the morning for contrast. Really. Did. Not.
I managed to brake, swing out and around and back into my lane, and he hit his brakes too or that maneuver wouldn't've worked. I had nowhere else to go except the ditch or into his car. (The way he was turning, he blocked my ability to swing into the other lane of the street he was coming from - he was cutting across it - that would have been dubious when braking from 45 anyway.)
No harm done, except to my nerves (and maybe his). But it could have been much worse. Luckily, there was no oncoming traffic. I am not sure if my brain processed that fact or not in choosing its course of action - as has been the case in every other accident or near-accident I've been in, I reacted without recording every step of the process or even most of the data. I assume that, had he failed to brake, I would have continued into the opposite ditch, but I'm really not sure if my brain had kept that in processing or not. I may be being overly optimistic.
Scary. Really freaking scary. Fortunately it was a nice, clear, dry day, so I didn't have to fight a wet road surface. I am not sure the over-and-back swerve while braking would have been doable, had the pavement been wet.
By the time I was back in my lane and glanced in my rear-view mirror, he had finished his left turn and was driving off, apparently not considering stopping or checking on me (perhaps because I kept moving and ended up on the road, but it still sort of upset me). But he has to have noticed me, because if he had kept going as he was, I would NOT have swerved around him while staying on the road. Either he would have hit me as I went past him, or I'd have been in the ditch.
Gotta say, my nerves didn't need that jolt. Really, really didn't. The rest of the drive to the new office was MUCH more uneventful, and I really like the new office, but I didn't need that bit of excitement in the morning for contrast. Really. Did. Not.
