Quick thinking just saved me from a rearend collision

I'm always playing the "what if" game. Every time I stop, I scan my surroundings and then watch the rear view. This just saved my ass about an hour ago.
Stopped due to a car making a left hand turn. Guy turning was about 6-8 cars in front of me. I slowed down early and left plenty of room in front of me. Checked rear view. Sure enough, BMW coming fast. Scan oncoming traffic quickly. Take notice the car had just turned left that stopped the line of cars. Last car in oncoming traffic had just passed me, Lane behind him was clear (THANK GOD!)
Looked back at BMW and he was still coming strong and fast. Cut wheels hard left and put over half my car into oncoming traffic lane, same time BMW driver was having his "Oh shit" moment and watched his nose dive and go to the right.
When he finally stopped, his front bumper was even with the center of my wheel and about 6" beside me.

He backed off the rest of the time he was behind me and pulled into the car wash down the road. I guess he had to hose out the driver seat. :eyebulge:

I always check 6 as well but I've never seen that nightmare you just described. Nice reaction in the heat of the moment.

Yep, you can't rely on others, check your six!

I ride a bike as well and being on a bike makes checking yourself even more important. Luckily bikes can usually fit between the cars so when stopped you set yourself up with an escape route and make sure two or three cars behind your are stopped before you can consider yourself safe.

I do a similar thing in the car and leave a little space in front of me, giving me options of changing lanes behind stopped cars, or at least moving forward a little. That last foot might count between a bang and no bang.

It is amazing how space solves pretty much every road problem we have: congestion, accidents, road rage from "being cut-off" (because you didn't leave much space for anyone to use the road as they're entitled to), frustration from not being able to change lanes without cutting people off (because again, people like to cram up each others' butts when driving, for some reason), etc...

I had a similar situation when I had my first car. I was a stop light and some old lady was coming off the highway and ran smack into the back of my car sending it into the car in front of me. This was all while both me and the car in front were at a red light. The sad thing was out of the three car accident only my car was damaged.

Ever since then I do what the OP did and always check my surroundings for an escape route. Especially on multi lane roads since people often try and share the same lane with me.

This is how my first car was totaled. Saw the whole thing coming but couldn't move fast enough out of the way for the idiot who couldn't completely make it to the right lane on the highway.

It's now 2nd nature to check my six. Glad you were able to stay safe!

My problem with my three rear end collisions was not having any room to get out of the way. Each time boxed in and watching an idiot hurtling toward me.

tsunami said:

My problem with my three rear end collisions was not having any room to get out of the way. Each time boxed in and watching an idiot hurtling toward me.

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Throw it in reverse and floor it. Survival instinct will cause the idiot to aim for something with a lower closing speed. ;)

Funny story;

I'm stopped at the bottom of a curving, elevated free way ramp, it hits 50+ feet in the air at it's peak. It's 1 lane, about maybe 20 feet wide.

I look in my rear-view mirror and see Bo & Luke coming 'round the curve, down the ramp towards me, waaaaaay too fast.

Bo hits the brakes, and the only working brake in their 1970s Chevy Rustbucket (right front) locks up. This does very little to slow their roll. Luke in the passenger seat has a 40 ounce in his hand, and starts screaming and reflexively stomping the floor like a brake pedal and sitting up higher, as they both realize.......they aint gonna make it.

I'm certain life is over. I see the impact coming, and have no place to go, nor the time to do it in.

But Bo manages to sneak by on my left, gets past three other cars, and finally rear-ends the 4th car in front of me. I then see Bo furiously smashing the steering wheel with his hand in frustration.

Shit.

My.

Pants.

I constantly watch what's going on and have had to go through red lights with tire smoke and all to avoid being rear-ended by someone with their phone in front of their nose. Luckily in those cases, the opposing traffic was basically non-existent.

Been rear ended twice. First time, I'm stopped waiting to turn left and three cars had successfully stopped behind me. Fourth we a good 'ol boy in a 20+ year old F-series truck who forgot to stop. I heard tires squeal and the crash, as I looked back to see what happened the domino effect reached me. Luckily most energy was spent and I was knocked forward a couple feet with little damage. The three other "victims" weren't so lucky, and the good 'ol boy had zero insurance.

Second time was in a parking lot waiting to pull into traffic. Teen girls popped the trailer hitch on my Sport Trac knocked me forward a few feet. They claimed they were adjusting the radio. Also had zero insurance.

I've come to believe only people with no insurance rear end other people.

Rob00GT said:

Been rear ended twice. First time, I'm stopped waiting to turn left and three cars had successfully stopped behind me. Fourth we a good 'ol boy in a 20+ year old F-series truck who forgot to stop. I heard tires squeal and the crash, as I looked back to see what happened the domino effect reached me. Luckily most energy was spent and I was knocked forward a couple feet with little damage. The three other "victims" weren't so lucky, and the good 'ol boy had zero insurance.

Second time was in a parking lot waiting to pull into traffic. Teen girls popped the trailer hitch on my Sport Trac knocked me forward a few feet. They claimed they were adjusting the radio. Also had zero insurance.

I've come to believe only people with no insurance rear end other people.

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I got domino love tapped in the rear (lol) about two months into owning this car. At-fault driver didn't have a current insurance card on him, but was apparently insured because my insurance was able to find a policy, and the middle driver had previously had his license revoked.

Getting rear ended is why I now have my '15 GT. I was driving a really nice '95 GT convertible for around 8-10 years. On my way to work, about 7:30 am. I was on the interstate and taking the merge lane onto another interstate.
For some reason people have a hard time maintaining the speed limit when they see a curve ahead. As usual some dipshit slows to 40 and traffic backs up. We all came to a screeching halt. Well, most of us did. Woman in the back claimed the girl between us dipped in at the last second taking up her stopping room.
Truth be known, she was probably accelerating to keep her from cutting in. Low and behold, woman in the back had her policy cancelled that morning at 12:01 am due to non payment. She had been driving on her grace period up to that morning.

What really sucked was I was out of a car for quite a while. Borrowing from my son while he was in Afghanistan, borrowing from friends, etc. Wreck was near the end of August of '13. Placed my order for the '15 on May 22 of '14 and took delivery on Nov. 5th of '14. Since my insurance had to pay me, I'm still paying higher rates and they dropped me due to her bad driving.

After that experience, I always watch the 6. Oh, and I go to work about 30 min earlier to avoid the majority of the stupid drivers.

Rob00GT said:

I've come to believe only people with no insurance rear end other people.

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so true.

I had an uninsured driver speeding towards me stopped at a red light. I always leave atleast a car length of space in front of me out of habit. I guess old military training never goes away I guess. Anyway, I see this old Inifinity J30 speeding towards me, so I gun it and pull to the right off the road and on to the shoulder. so the J30 rear ends the car in front of me instead. luckily the driver of the J30 was the only one injured. I know I'm a POS for saying that. it was a minor injury anyway. so she gets out of her car and starts yelling at me that it's my fault that she rear ended the car in front of me because I moved and pulled off the road. I just walked away.

ScottsGT said:

Getting rear ended is why I now have my '15 GT. I was driving a really nice '95 GT convertible for around 8-10 years. On my way to work, about 7:30 am. I was on the interstate and taking the merge lane onto another interstate.
For some reason people have a hard time maintaining the speed limit when they see a curve ahead. As usual some dipshit slows to 40 and traffic backs up. We all came to a screeching halt. Well, most of us did. Woman in the back claimed the girl between us dipped in at the last second taking up her stopping room.
Truth be known, she was probably accelerating to keep her from cutting in. Low and behold, woman in the back had her policy cancelled that morning at 12:01 am due to non payment. She had been driving on her grace period up to that morning.

What really sucked was I was out of a car for quite a while. Borrowing from my son while he was in Afghanistan, borrowing from friends, etc. Wreck was near the end of August of '13. Placed my order for the '15 on May 22 of '14 and took delivery on Nov. 5th of '14. Since my insurance had to pay me, I'm still paying higher rates and they dropped me due to her bad driving.

After that experience, I always watch the 6. Oh, and I go to work about 30 min earlier to avoid the majority of the stupid drivers.

[

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You hit the car in front of you?

ScottsGT said:

I'm always playing the "what if" game. Every time I stop, I scan my surroundings and then watch the rear view. This just saved my ass about an hour ago.
Stopped due to a car making a left hand turn. Guy turning was about 6-8 cars in front of me. I slowed down early and left plenty of room in front of me. Checked rear view. Sure enough, BMW coming fast. Scan oncoming traffic quickly. Take notice the car had just turned left that stopped the line of cars. Last car in oncoming traffic had just passed me, Lane behind him was clear (THANK GOD!)
Looked back at BMW and he was still coming strong and fast. Cut wheels hard left and put over half my car into oncoming traffic lane, same time BMW driver was having his "Oh shit" moment and watched his nose dive and go to the right.
When he finally stopped, his front bumper was even with the center of my wheel and about 6" beside me.

He backed off the rest of the time he was behind me and pulled into the car wash down the road. I guess he had to hose out the driver seat. :eyebulge:

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That was smart... I had to move over quickly Sunday... stupid lady in a white mini-van came into my lane attempting to pass (4 lane hwy). Had I not been paying attention, boom, we would have had an accident.

As I looked into her car, she was on her cell phone. I blew my horn, but I still doubt if she even knows I exist or was there.