You, too, Lowrider.....was: [Shotimes] Close call--Thanks SHO

[George Fourchy]

On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 13:49:35 -0700, allyoop wrote:

>I hit the brakes hard and quickly saw I wouldn't be able to stop in time.
>There was no oncoming traffic so I cranked it left and felt the ABS come on
>as I steered past the Mazda, half in the turn lane and half in the oncoming
>lane. It was over in a second and I just drove on.

I didn't mention this at the time, because it wasn't significant, relatively, but
after the fact it might be.  

Two weeks before Lowrider got hit in the rear, Eva and I were exiting I-80 coming
into Fairfield from the west.  The exit widens into two lanes, and the left one
becomes an on-ramp back onto the freeway.  There is one intersection/entry from a
surface street to the off ramp on the right side, prior to this on ramp, and traffic
is (obviously) supposed to stop and wait for exiting freeway traffic before
entering, even though two lanes are available, one for the stopped traffic to merge
into, and the other on the left for slowing freeway traffic to go around them.

There was an older Chrysler Corp car (one of those ugly '80s square ones) entering
the right lane of the two lane offramp, 100 feet or so ahead of us as we left the
right lane of the freeway.  I saw him, and let the car coast down, planning to go
around on the left side, but covering the brake anyway.  The other car was going
very slowly, and I figured we'd be around him with no problem, as we were still
going over 60, and had plenty of room to slow past the on ramp, before the ramp
merged onto a city street.  As I was approaching the other car, within 20 feet or
so, it suddenly became evident that it was not straightening out into its right
lane, but was coming all the way across.  I was WAY too close to brake, so I whipped
the wheel to the left, then whipped it back, to pull first the front fender, then
the rear one, over as far as I could away from him.  There was no time to honk,
yell, warn Eva, or do ANYTHING....just steer.  The object was to keep my fenders out
of his fenders.

All this would have been fine, except that there was/is a curb on the left shoulder
of the ramp, about 3 inches high on the street side, and about 5 inches high down to
the sand and dirt that was between the ramp and the freeway.  The Chrysler was about
3 feet into my lane by the time I got to him.   The two left wheels (the MHT chrome
wire wheels) ground into that curb, then they jumped it, and I high centered the
subframe and the fuel tank on the curb.  This was at about 50 mph, then when I
whipped the wheel back, the wheels bit into the curb again, and the car jumped back
onto the road.  It sounded awful!!  I stopped it as soon as I could, and got out,
finally remembering to breathe.  A CHP was rolling in behind us, (the other car was
stopped cold) and hurried up to me reminding me that this was still an active off
ramp, with a 55 mph recommended speed, and I should get the car off the road, if it
ran.  I told him it did, and moved it. 

It turns out the driver of the other car only had ONE EYE.  His left eye was
gone....he was driving with his right eye only.  ...totally zero depth
perception.....   He was very apologetic, and said he'd fix anything that was wrong.
 I didn't discover the rim damage for a couple of days (the tires were bruised, and
I concentrated on them ....they're OK),  but looked at the subframe and bushings
immediately ...it is scratched, but also OK.  There is a tiny bit less negative
camber on the left side now, as the subframe got punched inward a tiny bit, but it
isn't noticable as a pull.  I did have to adjust the tie-rods to recenter the wheel.
 When the car was being cut apart for the new rear clip, I got a look at the gas
tank...it has scratches from the curb, but no dents.  The rocker panel and underbody
is OK.

After adjusting the wheel, the car drove fine.  It's been off the road now for 6
weeks, and I'll find out tomorrow (Tuesday) exactly when it will be done.  Then, I
can check it out to see if there is any real damage to anything else, like the
wheels.....they aren't bent, I know that.  But this other post about the Miata
refreshed my memory of this incident....Eva understands now about how driving on a
racetrack can improve reactions in real traffic.

Thanks, Lowrider!!

George