...And that's why I don't like Intersections....

[amberwolf]

If you have a tale of woe or adventure from an intersection, here's a parking spot for it.

Mine I posted in my SB Cruiser thread but thought it might (with others) make a good thread. Below is a quote of it:

Tonight I came within a few feet of being killed.

I was sitting at the red light on the north side of Peoria, having just left work. I looked down at the power meter, because it was going to be about 45 seconds before the light would have a chance to change, then heard a really loud POP and suddenly there was a truck and a car spinning towards me very rapidly, and there was zero way I could get out of the way. All I could do was stay where I was on the trike and hope they skidded to a stop before they hit me.

Thankfully, they did...but just barely. The car was about 7 or 8 feet away, I think, at an angle in front of me, and just sat there. The pickup truck skidded to within a few feet of me, maybe 3 feet from the front tire of the trike, just to the left of it and forward, then slowly rolled away from me, going the wrong direction down the road I had come from to get where I was, but diagonally, and then up onto the concrete median, where I think it eventually stopped.

THe guy driving the car pushed the airbag away from his face, and I yelled out "are you ok?" but he ignored me and yelled something at the truck driver, then he started to try to drive the car forward, but it didn't work very well; I think he was trying to go after the truck; not sure, but then he got out and yelled something else, and then "park it!", I think. He seemed so angry; as if the truck driver had done it on purpose.


At that point, the light went red for both east and west traffic, and the green arrow turn signals for north and south came on, and the cars wiating to turn started going. I was still watching the guy from the car cuz he seemed very angry and focused on the truck, and wasnt' sure exactly what he was going to do, so the loud honking from (I think) the city bus turning west onto peoria out of the north end of metrocenter, at a car that had stopped and was in the rightmost lane before the bus stop there, with it's flashers going. I don't know why they were stopped, but they moved over some as the bus just kept going (as did the other cars) as if they didn't care if they caused yet another collision.

I figured I should just get out of there before someone else did something stupid, possibly just becuase they were looking at the wreck instead of the road (happens a lot), so when the green came on to let me cross, I did that. There were cars behind me waiting to turn right, too, so I would have had to move for that reason alone, as the car being in the intersection blocking the next lane (or two) over would've kept them from just going around me if I didn't move.

I was apparently still in a little bit of shock because until the light turned red while I was still crossing the intersction, I didn't realize I was only at about 12MPH or so, and I pushed the throttles forward and confirmed it was an operator problem and not the trike itself (like maybe a flat from having to go thru the debris from the fronts of the two vehicles, scattered directly across my path, some of it in large chunks of pointy plastic). No flats/etc., though.


I continued home, mostly at 16-18mph rather than near 20, not really sure why; I just kept slowing down whenever I got near my usual speeds.


I didnt' see the actual collision, but I think the truck was making a left turn across traffic when he should have been stopped at the red arrow on the west side, and the car was going thru the green light from east to west, and they hit each other with zero attempt at braking; probably didn't even see each other at all before impact. Dunno...just a guess. I couldn't even see the actual damage on the truck or car, just the swath of debris from their front ends scattered across the intersection.

 

[alan]

This was over 4 years ago on my way home from work (been retired 3 years!). I was heading south on College at a red light on Broadway. I was in the bike lane stopped next to a car. A hedge row blocked nearly all vision for me and the car to the nearest west-bound bike lane to our right. Those shrubs separated the main Broadway road from a side alley/street that ended at and did not connect with College. When the light turned green, the car and I both proceeded south. Another bicycle going east in the west bike lane headed straight into me against a red light. Impossible for either of us to see each other because of the shrubs, but he was on the wrong side of the street (north side heading east) and ran a red light. Had I not been there, he would have gone straight into the car that was next to and slightly behind me, and likely would have hit his front bumper at the passenger side of the car. As it was, our front wheels made contact, forcing both to turn, and quickly taking us both down to the ground. He quickly got back on his bike and somehow managed to weave between the cross traffic to get away. I picked up my bike and rode the last 3 miles home. Four hours later when my elbow started hurting, I found out it was broken! No cast needed, but I had to wear a sling, and could not ride for 6 weeks.

That intersection has since been redone, and the row of shrubs against the side of the road are now gone.

 

[The fingers]

As a kid I grew up living in a corner house, seeing many accidents up close. Like the helmetless guy on a motorcycle whose face hit the curb after colliding with a car at the uncontrolled intersection. Once, a group of us kids was standing on the porch when two cars crashed, sending one of them straight towards us as we ran inside. The car ended up in the dining room leaving a car-sized hole in the house. It was like a war explosion and the carnage continued until one of the neighbors got elected mayor and stop signs were installed. :x

 

[Ianhill]

Sat on a public bench a speeding car hit the curb and wrecked just opposite me and a group of friends, a chunk of the alloy wheel came flying past us head height and through both windows of a phone box, around an inch or two at most from one of my friends.
I've been driving down the motorway with extreme fog and I had this uneasy feeling to get my arse of at the next junction so I did when I went up the on ramp to the fly over and a 9 car pile up happened to the side of me where I just was, I've also predicted my mate being bumped and lots of coincidences its like I have a sixth sense for danger I can feel it when it's near.

 

[markz]

I can and have predicted countless situations while driving. Not accidents but what people are about to do.

 

[John in CR]

I love intersections with stop lights, because then I can always get in front of the first car(s) and take off faster than anyone else with free clear road in front of me. Wait till you guys see my latest curve carving road rocket that began life as a horrid el cheapo lead laden 15kph European legal escooter with pedals. 8)

 

[Rassy]

All cars, but I'll never forget it. Back in the late 1960's approaching a red light in my '57 T-Bird on a 4 lane undivided 40 MPH road. Was in the fast lane and had noticed an older pick-up catching up to me, but quite a ways back. Came to a full stop, checked my mirror, the pick-up had not slowed down. Checked the intersection, it was a Tee and the cars were on a slight uphill and just starting to move. Floored the T-Bird through the red light and came out the other side over 30 MPH with the pick-up locked up and sliding right on my tail.

Still wonder what would have happened if I hadn't been paying attention to what was behind me. For you Pennsylvanians that was on route 30 heading east from Pittsburgh towards Greensburg.

 

[Dauntless]

I can and have predicted countless situations while driving. Not accidents but what people are about to do.

Such as yesterday as I pulled away from the stop sign. The idiot had not even gotten to the stop sign, but he starts pedaling real hard. So I can guess he's planning to run the stop sign and try to beat me across, but that means he wants to get right in front of me as I'm getting to that side. He even swerved to the right to keep going and indeed almost got mowed down but I had watched him from the moment he started pedaling harder. If I'd accelerated as I should have I wonder if he'd have just rode into my door. These people never admit anything is their fault.

Then last night I heard the crunch but I missed the actual 3 way. I walked up on all three seeming disabled and a man laying on the ground, I don't know if he'd been in a car of if he was a pedestrian who got out there in the way. It's posted no crossing the major street because it's sloped on one side and you could be invisible to oncoming traffic. But people run out into that street at night all the time, no matter how much traffic. It's over 100 feet to the next intersection with the traffic light, they'd rather cross at this one that's not controlled.

 

[amberwolf]

Almost exactly this same collision as started this thread occured yesterday when I was leaving work early (cuz I was sick), thus was early afternoon instead of late night.

Thankfully I had not yet even made it out of teh parking lot, so wasn't anywhere near the intersection, because this time the colliding cars *did* hit the cars in the lanes on the side of the intersection I'd've been in. I don't know how many vehicles were involved in the thing, by the time it'd all ended; I didn't even head toward the intersection and just went around.

 

[dogman dan]

I also like being the first vehicle in the intersection, first off, after a good hard look all three ways, and then ride with some space on the motorcycle, or car. On bikes and e bikes, I ride a bit different. I really prefer to be last through the light, and will hang back in a bike lane till all the cars in the right lane have started moving, then get in the lane and ride, but I hang very far to the left in the lane, because I need that guy waiting to turn left to see me. This wouldn't work in Phoenix, but it does in my smaller city.

So much shit to watch for at every stop, that's for sure. In a car, I often enough get honked at, because I'm still doing that hard look three ways first.

I never considered that a wreck could send cars my spinning my way sitting there first. I just thought about what has happened to me, and my wife, the guy about 4 cars back not stopping in time. In that situation first means you don't get sandwiched between two cars on a motorcycle or bicycle, or car. I sit there at the intersection watching my mirror for that one. Funny story, when it happened to my wife, the guy who got shoved into her car was a relative.

Something to think about, another way to die in traffic, just parked. Thanks for the story, its experience that keeps you alive, and second hand experience is good too.