Followers will have noted that I'm the dolt who assembled the timing gears
out of alignment on the engine replacement project for my '77.
This will neccessitate removal of the freshly installed rad, and draining of
the oil in order to tear down the front of the engine to access the timing
gears and sprockets.
First step - dran the oil, so yesterday afternoon, I went for my trusty
plastic oil collector, only to have it still full from last fall.
Environmentalist (Commonsense-alist?) that I am, it was off to the local
service station to dump the container in their large collection tank. I
pulled up in front of the service station, turned the car off, placed it in
gear and pulled on the emergency brake before getting out. My 15 year old
son was in the passenger seat. (FTR, my son is a young man with Down
Syndrome). As I was in the garage dumping the oil, I heard someone exclaim,
"Oh my gawd, who owns that white car?!"
I tore outside, only to find that Zakkary had pulled the car out of gear,
and released the handbrake, and the car had rolled down the entrance-way,
into traffic, and had been hit head-on by a pick-up truck.
I cannot describe the horror in my mind. When I reached the car - the front
end was demolished, and fearing the worst I dove inside, only to find
Zakkary's somewhat startled, darling face unmarked, unblemished, untouched.
Not a mark on the young man. "Thorry Dad." was his reply.
Thank God for the fact he was wearing his seatbelt. The driver of the truck
was unhurt, equally startled, and the truck wasn't too bad...the Nissan
Altima however....took the hit high and the front crumpled like an
accordion, just as it's designed to do....
Several thoughts present themselves here. Above absolutely all else, is the
fact that my son escaped with no manner of injury at all. We are truly blessed.
Secondly, never, ever leave a child unattended in a vehicle for any amount
of time for any reason. If one must - ensure the child is in the back seat,
and cannot reach the controls. (Zakkary, at 15 functions at about the level
of a six year old in some repespects. While he was cognizant of the what he
was doing, ie: 'driving like Dad', he had no concept of the consequences, or
possible disasterous results.)
And I feel like one of the lowest forms on the planet. Although my son is
fine, I can't help but wonder what else I could have done. I had thought
that I had taken every preventative measure possible - turned the car off,
in gear (it's a manual 5-speed) and handbrake on. Not enough. I should have
had Zakk come with me inside, or move to the back seat....but who'd have
known...
During a sleepless night last evening, I began to doubt myself. Had I left
the car running, in neutral with only the handbrake on? This morning, while
speaking with the Nissan dealership, the service manager asked, "was the car
running when it was hit?" When I asked why, he wondered why the airbag
hadn't deployed. Bingo - the ignition must be on for the airbag sensors to
function! So I DID turn it off, in gear etc. as I thought.
But this now raises a point about airbags I wasn't aware of - the car's
ignition must be on before they're activiated? Methinks this might be a
design flaw....
A final chilling thought - we almost took one of the MGs. Given the
identical scenario, the car would have slid under the truck......too scary.
Is there a moral here? Several actually. Thanks for letting me share the story.
I cannot emphasis enough, the seriousness one must take when wished "take care".
Please do.
Terry
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