Almost lost the car in a turnpike pile up...

[JusFlyinBy]

Hey guys, this was sort of exciting so I wanted to share the story with ya's in case you are bored at work surfin like me. ;)

So there I am, cruising down the Mass turnpike, probably 4 exits or so out of Boston heading West. The traffic is horrible. Bumper to bumper, three lanes wide, with the kind of drivers that hit the brakes every 10 seconds for no apparent reason.

So im cruising in the far left lane, keeping with traffic and looking for my opportunity to break out of this congested BS. Because of this I'm watching far down the road trying to see if the traffic was going to clear at any point, or if it was just one *** tard that was causing the whole mess. The whole time im keeping an eye on some tard riding my ***. I glance back ahead to notice just three cars ahead of me, the person slams their brakes, hard...

(Now bare with me, this all happened extremley fast so I'll try to remember the details.)

I watch the guy just behind him go slamming into his rear lifting the whole car up and throwing it to the side. The guy in front of me reacts by yanking his wheel and slamming into the guard rail on his left. Now heres me, knowing damn well if I slam the brakes, my fate is some tailgater right up my ***, then plowing me right into the mess in front of me. So I hit the brakes hard but reasonably, and veer slowly, but quickly (if that all makes sense) to my right into the middle lane, trying to give the guy to my right as much sign as possible that he needs to make room for me and fast.

Thank god the guy to my right had brains and skill enough to slow down in the same manner and squeeze his way over. Meanwhile I barely clear the crashed cars on my left and just about make contact with the guy on my right. I can hear the cars all behind me squeeling struggling to stop because im sure my tailgater had a nice suprise when I veered to the right. I don't know what happened to him because now im basically in the dead center of the crash scene. I don't know wtf happened, but there were 3 cars smashed on my left, one spun out and facing on comming traffic, directly in front of me, and it looked like 2 other smashed up cars on my right. It was a huge mess. Immediatley people just on the other side pulled over and started to run out to help. I was thinking about it too but I noticed lots of people are now running out from the now dead stopped I-90 to also help. I was also still fearing people continuing to rear end each other. So with that I drove ahead slowly to finish my trip home, noticing that no one else got by the now three lane car pile up road block except for me and some person in an accord who I believe was the original guy to my right.

The whole time I didn't get scared, an adrenaline rush or anything. I just reacted. Not a mile up the road I got the shakes a little as I realized what just happened and how close I was. I screamed out, "Holy F***!", and was better. Lol.

Anyone from MA, if you could fill me in on a news article or something, Im very curious to find out what happened.

P.S. - I was in my GTO, and im glad I was because the way the brakes are in my Fireturd, I dunno if I woulda been able to stop so well.

So, my story of the day. I truly hope everyone made it out of that ok though... :(

[LD]

wow thats amazing!!!!
good quick reaction!
I had something similar happen to me except I did it all by myself, not someone elses fault lol
I was driving my moms 4 wheel drive s10 last winter.
I was driving down a country road. My cousin was with me and I was trying to show her something on my phone. Next thing I know I am at about a 45 degree angle in a ditch on the opposite side of the road cruising at 55mph. I put some good pressure on the brakes, and drove around signs, trees, ect. Right in the middle of this I leaned over and patted my cousins leg and said "were gonna be fine"
I was completely calm through the whole thing. Brought the truck to a stop, pushed the clutch in, shifted into 4 wheel drive and drove out through someones yard and out their driveway. Once we got back on the road I winked and said told ya we'd be fine. Then about 30 seconds later I had a case of whole body shakes lol
I had to pull over and calm down.

[99V6Camaro]

DAMN thats crazy! Lucky too, id hate to see that beautiful GTO banged up... glad you are okay.

[RicE-ter]

whew good story...glad to hear u and ur GTO are okay.

it really irritates me when people ride ur a** in traffic or otherwise, also when u try to leave a cushion infront of u some a**hole darts infront of u causing u to hit the brakes :mad: if someone uses their signal or asks(gestures) to let them in i usually let em, some people are so aggrivating grr..

[ThatsMeGC]

I hate those people who hit their brakes for no reason, I'm always so worried about that accident coming out of nowhere. Because I know when I see someone like that in front of me I just start ignoring their brake lights after a few minutes and just try to stay back but you can't even do that cause they tap their brakes till all your buffer space is gone then.

I've almost rear ended people like that a few times because I don't pay attention to their brakes lights then they slam on them for no reason and its like...oh god...then you slam on yours and look in your rear view and see someone else about to slam into you.

[Loochy88]

the force is strong with this one.

way to keep cool. i hope everyone else at least came out half as good as you did.

[L32Projekt]

Way to keep your situational awareness peaked! Good job on not becoming a statistic either. ;)

[JusFlyinBy]

Thanks guys. And this is the second time something like this happened too. I'll save that story for another time, haha. 7 years in a car, and 6 years on a bike with not even a ding in the door (or fairing :-p) of one of my vehicles, and damn im gonna try and keep it that way. Yet my insurance is still ridiculous cause of my age and gender. :( Sucks, wheres the rewards for being a safe driver anyway? I sure as hell aint seein'em.

[L32Projekt]

And you won't either. Even mention you were close to an accident and your rates would skyrocket... well maybe not but I'm sure they'd try it if they could. :D

10 years of driving here, no accidents and plenty (read: more than I'm confortable with) of close calls. I've got my learners for motorcycle, and a few rides under the 'ol belt but still haven't taken the plunge and got the "full monty" license. Riding does make you a better driver because you have to learn situational awareness if you don't want to become road lasagne. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[JusFlyinBy]

Originally posted by L32Projekt:
Riding does make you a better driver because you have to learn situational awareness if you don't want to become road lasagne. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Heh, yea I guess you are right. Never looked at it that way. That is, how riding can improve your driving. Think about it. Its like you have to be 4 times more aware since you are 4 times less noticeable. Although it seems more often then not you are just straight up invisible... :mad: