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Have you ever been scared while driving? What was your scariest moment?
I've never been truly scared while driving, although there have been a few moments where I should have been scared.
The first one, going to work in Stratford in the middle of winter, I had my defroster on only the #2 setting because the air was not warm yet. Suddenly, the entire windshield completely freezes over so that I have zero visibility. I crank the blower up to 4, and knowing the road was clear and knowing all the little curves from driving it before, I used the rearview mirror to drive forwards while stopping the car. After that, I always had my defroster on 4 for the first few kilometres of driving, cold air or not.
Second one was going to my parents' house in Mississauga. I was on the Eastbound 401 just past James Snow Parkway, doing about 70 km/h when I should have been doing 50 km/h. I was passing a black F-150 in the right-hand lane, and I was followed by a big transport truck. As I started my lane change back to the right, my front right tire got bogged down in the mountain of slush between lanes. I gave it too much gas and the tire broke loose, the front wobbled, and then the rear broke loose. Soon I found myself doing a clockwise turn in front of a transport truck. I did the fastest palm-steering I have ever done and got myself moving towards the left lane while doing a spin.
I did a full 360, tried to recover, then the back end broke loose again seconds later. After 180 degrees on this second spin, I was too close to the concrete divider to recover again and the front passenger corner went into it. I cracked my front bumper in half and lost the bottom mounting tabs of my right headlamp.
A year later around the same time, I was on Essa Road in Barrie, going down a large hill. In the lanes coming up the hill, I noticed a stalled transport truck and a sideways city bus. A traffic light had turned red at the bottom of the hill, but it was after an ice storm and all I could get was the grinding of ABS - my car was actually speeding up down the hill. I turned on my four-ways and started to bump my front tire against the snowbank, enough to slow me down but not enough to break the rear loose. Luckily, all the cars behind me took my cue and did the same, so no one rear-ended me. Soon after that, this section of road was closed down while they spread salt or sand on it.
This next one is something that could have ended up in the news. 'Unfortunate motorist freezes to death minutes from rescue.' I was taking back roads at 1 AM from Waterloo to Orillia, as the 401-400 route takes a detour through the Toronto area. It was right after one of the big storms last December, and some of the roads had not been plowed yet.
I turned onto this road with about six inches of snow on it, which by experience was easily handled by the Escape. I crested a small hill and drove towards a valley in the road, and then my windshield was covered in snow and my car came right to a stop and would not budge. It turns out that all the snow from the fields had blown into this valley, collecting in about three feet of compacted snow.
I forced my door open (almost had to climb out through the window) and surveyed the damage. No damage to my car, but it was obvious that it was not going anywhere on its own. My cell phone had no signal and I could see no lights telling me there were houses nearby. I explored the area on my GPS, and found that Fergus was within hiking distance, about 7 km away. Without that GPS, I would have had no sense of direction and probably wandered farther out into the boonies. I put on my miner's light, grabbed a few light sticks and one of those crank flashlights, and went on my way. After one or two kilometres, I came to a larger highway and flagged down a snowplow. It turns out I had found the only one in the area with a passenger seat.
I got a ride into Fergus and called a tow truck from a Tim Hortons.
At first, the tow truck dispatcher refused to send one to my area, as too many of their own trucks had been getting stuck. Knowing that my car was stuck in the middle of the road and not knowing what a plow would do to it in the morning, I finally convinced them to send a truck out to do some recon, and I would pay for their time, recovery or not. It took half an hour and two different routes to finally get within sight of my car. The tow truck's 80-ft winch was not long enough to reach me, but I had two 20-foot recovery straps in my car. We hooked them all together, shovelled enough snow away from the front of the car, and finally pulled it out.
The tow truck driver was really nice, said he did me a favour by driving so far and risking his rig because I had been honest about how badly I was stuck. He had had a few cases where he recovered the car, found out that he was stuck, and the car just drove away around him, sometimes without paying. He was also surprised that I had all my own recovery equipment, and had fun watching the stretchiness of the recovery straps compared to his winch cable. I lost feeling in three of my fingers for two weeks after that.
The latest incident was in the Escort, driving south on Highway 11 a few months ago. I was in the left lane passing a transport truck, when that truck drifted to the left and the truck's tires caught the slush buildup between our lanes. The Escort's wipers had no chance of keeping up, and now I was doing 90 km/h blind. Looking out the side windows, I could see how far away I was from both the centre guardrail and the transport truck beside me. I managed to speed up and get away by looking sideways while driving forward.
Then there are the typical cases where someone turns left right in front of me, a pedestrian jumps in front of my car (happens a LOT on campus), or someone tries to merge right into me.
I've never been truly scared while driving, although there have been a few moments where I should have been scared.
The first one, going to work in Stratford in the middle of winter, I had my defroster on only the #2 setting because the air was not warm yet. Suddenly, the entire windshield completely freezes over so that I have zero visibility. I crank the blower up to 4, and knowing the road was clear and knowing all the little curves from driving it before, I used the rearview mirror to drive forwards while stopping the car. After that, I always had my defroster on 4 for the first few kilometres of driving, cold air or not.
Second one was going to my parents' house in Mississauga. I was on the Eastbound 401 just past James Snow Parkway, doing about 70 km/h when I should have been doing 50 km/h. I was passing a black F-150 in the right-hand lane, and I was followed by a big transport truck. As I started my lane change back to the right, my front right tire got bogged down in the mountain of slush between lanes. I gave it too much gas and the tire broke loose, the front wobbled, and then the rear broke loose. Soon I found myself doing a clockwise turn in front of a transport truck. I did the fastest palm-steering I have ever done and got myself moving towards the left lane while doing a spin.
I did a full 360, tried to recover, then the back end broke loose again seconds later. After 180 degrees on this second spin, I was too close to the concrete divider to recover again and the front passenger corner went into it. I cracked my front bumper in half and lost the bottom mounting tabs of my right headlamp.
A year later around the same time, I was on Essa Road in Barrie, going down a large hill. In the lanes coming up the hill, I noticed a stalled transport truck and a sideways city bus. A traffic light had turned red at the bottom of the hill, but it was after an ice storm and all I could get was the grinding of ABS - my car was actually speeding up down the hill. I turned on my four-ways and started to bump my front tire against the snowbank, enough to slow me down but not enough to break the rear loose. Luckily, all the cars behind me took my cue and did the same, so no one rear-ended me. Soon after that, this section of road was closed down while they spread salt or sand on it.
This next one is something that could have ended up in the news. 'Unfortunate motorist freezes to death minutes from rescue.' I was taking back roads at 1 AM from Waterloo to Orillia, as the 401-400 route takes a detour through the Toronto area. It was right after one of the big storms last December, and some of the roads had not been plowed yet.
I turned onto this road with about six inches of snow on it, which by experience was easily handled by the Escape. I crested a small hill and drove towards a valley in the road, and then my windshield was covered in snow and my car came right to a stop and would not budge. It turns out that all the snow from the fields had blown into this valley, collecting in about three feet of compacted snow.
I forced my door open (almost had to climb out through the window) and surveyed the damage. No damage to my car, but it was obvious that it was not going anywhere on its own. My cell phone had no signal and I could see no lights telling me there were houses nearby. I explored the area on my GPS, and found that Fergus was within hiking distance, about 7 km away. Without that GPS, I would have had no sense of direction and probably wandered farther out into the boonies. I put on my miner's light, grabbed a few light sticks and one of those crank flashlights, and went on my way. After one or two kilometres, I came to a larger highway and flagged down a snowplow. It turns out I had found the only one in the area with a passenger seat.
I got a ride into Fergus and called a tow truck from a Tim Hortons.At first, the tow truck dispatcher refused to send one to my area, as too many of their own trucks had been getting stuck. Knowing that my car was stuck in the middle of the road and not knowing what a plow would do to it in the morning, I finally convinced them to send a truck out to do some recon, and I would pay for their time, recovery or not. It took half an hour and two different routes to finally get within sight of my car. The tow truck's 80-ft winch was not long enough to reach me, but I had two 20-foot recovery straps in my car. We hooked them all together, shovelled enough snow away from the front of the car, and finally pulled it out.
The tow truck driver was really nice, said he did me a favour by driving so far and risking his rig because I had been honest about how badly I was stuck. He had had a few cases where he recovered the car, found out that he was stuck, and the car just drove away around him, sometimes without paying. He was also surprised that I had all my own recovery equipment, and had fun watching the stretchiness of the recovery straps compared to his winch cable. I lost feeling in three of my fingers for two weeks after that.
The latest incident was in the Escort, driving south on Highway 11 a few months ago. I was in the left lane passing a transport truck, when that truck drifted to the left and the truck's tires caught the slush buildup between our lanes. The Escort's wipers had no chance of keeping up, and now I was doing 90 km/h blind. Looking out the side windows, I could see how far away I was from both the centre guardrail and the transport truck beside me. I managed to speed up and get away by looking sideways while driving forward.
Then there are the typical cases where someone turns left right in front of me, a pedestrian jumps in front of my car (happens a LOT on campus), or someone tries to merge right into me.
