For those of you in the South Houston area, if you know where Bay Area is, you know it's always busy and is terrible to drive down especially between 2 and 6. Anyway, I'm in town visiting my parents and my older sister who still lives with them wanted to go out to eat. My car was behind hers so I offered to drive. Werent going anywhere fancy, just heading to a Chinese Buffet. On the way back home, my sister had me stop by target and drop her off for 30-45 minutes so she could pick up groceries. I was going to pick up my dads dry cleaning about 2-3 miles away. As I'm driving down Bay Area, I was in the middle lane, might I add, there was a terrible traffic jam. I saw the dry cleaners down the road about 20 seconds away and realized I had to switch to the right lane but there was a white Dodge Charger perfectly in my blind spot, who wouldn't let me change lanes. In front of me was a White mustang and my 2003 banged up Honda Accord is in between them trying to switch lanes. The mustang sped up and the Charger slowed down which gave me enough room to switch lanes. As I was switching lanes however, the Charger began to speed up, nearly hitting me car. I began to move back into my lane but then I noticed the Mustang had slowed down (there was no one within a good 1000 feet in front of the mustang too). To stop myself from hitting it, I swerved back into the right lane, but my 12 year old car lost control. Luckily for me, the ******* in the right lane slowed back down. My car lost complete control and I went over a curb on the other side of the right lane and the drivers side of my car nearly got taken out by a tree (my drivers side mirror took a pretty big hit though). The car tilted about 30ish degrees to where my side was in the air and the passenger side was getting nicely cleaned by the grass. My car landed fine on the other side of the curb with a few scratches, a dent on the drivers side window, some grass and dirt covering my car, and the splash shield breaking off. Luckily, I don't have a concussion since my head slammed against my window but I got pretty bad whiplash. A married couple in a truck pulled over to help me and one was a doctor (like me) but I clearly wasn't in any condition to try to fix myself up (more of a state of shock than anything else). They helped me patch up some cuts and gave me water and stuff like that to calm me down. Luckily I walked away with a bad headache, some bruises, and back pain and nothing more. After about 5-10 minutes of sitting in my car I decided to go back and pick up my sister (and the dry cleaning). I'm very lucky I didn't hit that tree or else I wouldn't be in any state to write this out for you guys. I was very close and about a minute before this all happened, I rolled up my drivers window because it was too hot. If I didn't make that choice idk what would've happened. TL;DR ******* cut me off, drivers side nearly taken out by a tree, hot lady and her husband patched me up and then I went and picked up Dry Cleaning.
it's jarring to get in a near bad wreck. stays with you for a while. in 20 years or so, maybe less, we're going to look back and realize how ridiculous it was that we all drove 1.5 ton pieces of metal at 65 mph. it's insane when you think about it. relying on every random person to know how to operate the cars properly and safely and whatnot.
That goodness that you're OK. That sounds like a near miss! I started thinking about Bay Area Blvd. after I read your post and remembered when it was a deserted 4 lane boulevard in the early 1970's, built for the real estate boom expected from NASA coming to the area, a boom slow to reach part of that road. For a stretch of time, a very long stretch of that road was devoid of homes, businesses, anything. Perfect for racing sports cars late at night. Four of us had them. I had a '65 Triumph Spitfire, one friend had Datsun 240Z, another an MGB, and my cousin had an Austin-Healey 5000. I know you almost killed yourself there, so forgive me a private smie while I remember all those carefree nights with the top down, barreling along those gentle curves as fast as we could manage and still keep together. The Austin-Healey and the Z could have left us in their dust had they tried. They were being polite. ;-)-
Might be off topic but when do you guys think they'll finish with I-45 close to Bay Area and Webster? It's been what......5 years?
I literally got ran off the road once by a tailgater and almost died because someone decided to slam the brakes out of nowhere on the freeway. There are too many assholes on the road. Glad you are okay OP. I think we'll all benefit from automated cars in the future.
Glad you're okay, hope you don't have to spend a lot or feel too much road-anxiety as a result. However, I was thrown for a while because I kept thinking how you referred to that as South Houston (area). Yes technically it is south, but why wouldn't you say Clear Lake or Webster or something like that? I was trying to think if Bay Area somehow curved up into the city of South Houston
Houston has some of the worst drivers I've ever seen. They are idiots in every way. My best advice to you is always be paranoid and ALWAYS assume they are going to speed up rather than hit the break. They aren't going to hit the break for any reason. that 120 car pile up a few years ago could only have happened in texas.
That sucks man. You're probably just looking to share your story and not receive advice, but here goes... You're a doctor right? Buy a new car with turn signal blinkers on the side view mirrors. Just may prevent a next time.
I'm glad you'll be alright. I'd get that whiplash looked at though. Preachy advice? Nice driver protip: It's okay to miss your exit if you don't feel safe with the blind spot. One aspect to reduce roadrage is to remove unconscious competition out of it (who's better, who's on top, I'm not driving behind this moron, a u-turn is proof I'm a bad driver who makes mistake). ******* driver protip: The driver behind you would've been liable if he hit your car. Just like tailgaters, it's a feint and if your car isn't a luxury car, it's worth the risk.
On a completely unrelated topic, I recently got clocked going 67 in a 35 in South Houston (Pasadena, TX) area. Glad you're okay brah.
Sorry to hear that OP, but I'm glad you're ok. My (pregnant) wife got rear ended yesterday and the woman who hit her argued with the police for a long time that it was actually my wife's fault: "I thought she was moving! So really it's her fault!" the dumb b**** said. I'm glad for my wife's sake that I wasn't there because I would have said some mean things that I would have regretted by now. In the end, the cops didn't even give that lady a ticket because, as he told my wife, "she would probably contest it and I don't want to go to court." (Again... I'm glad for my wife's sake that I wasn't there because I would have said some more things that I would have regretted by now.) Anyway... people can suck but I'm glad you're gonna be ok.
Either that or just drive far ahead enough that they can see your regular blinkers. 2-3-4-3-3-4, just like Ed Haberman says.
Glad to hear that you're ok PersianRocket! Your story reminds me of this... Spoiler You had both in your story... Ass-umption much? ... ....... ....... .......
