[TauriJames]

I was curious on the different stories everyone has had on close calls, oh s***s, and the puckering of you know what. I Didn't see a thread like this and I think it's entertaining to hear how other lotus drivers feel about dumb drivers and or those not paying attention.

I never really had anything happen, Until today. I was driving on the 22 merging on the 5 north passing Disneyland, and there's a semi pulling a trailer full of something, Didn't pay too much attention. But I look ahead at the cab of the semi and it's moving over into my lane! So with a quick reaction I swerved into the next lane halfway causing the truck driver to finally notice me and swerve back into his lane, almost tipping his trailer over. I panic a bit and I speed up to get past him and this business truck ahead of him (uhaul style) moved into my lane as I was at his quarter panel. Making me stop. Mind you he didn't even react to a vehicle passing him or being in that lane. I then move all the way to the fast lane to get out of everyone's way. I was definitely feeling the adrenalin after that.

 

[Ianreed06]

Saw on yahoo 9 ppl died on the 5 today. Glad you weren't number 10.

 

[TauriJames]

Wow I just read that.very sad. Prayers to the families and loved ones.

 

[David Craig]

My closest call in the Lotus was driving right through a red light at normal speed. It was in an industrial area of town that luckily had no traffic going the other way.

My wife told me about the light when I had already entered the intersection.

I don't know why I didn't notice the light. It is weird because I spend a lot of time worrying about small parking lot accidents and this time it could have been a major accident.

 

[GR82DRV]

Speaking of pucker, this dash cam video went viral earlier this week:

 

[GR82DRV]

OK, here's mine, in two parts:

In fall of 2011 I was driving through a rural area with my wife on the way to my son's teacher conference. As we crested a hill a deer on a dead out run shot between me and a car in the oncoming lane. It narrowly missed the oncoming car while attempting to jump my Civic. As the photos show, she didn't quite make the jump.

About the same time the next year, a half mile from my house on a very narrow rural town road I was driving my Elise with the top off. As I let off the throttle for an upcoming stop sign I heard crashing in the heavy brush to my right. At that same moment a running deer appeared just off my right fender and it instinctively jumped as I instinctively flinched. One of the deer's hooves passed just in front of my forehead as the deer totally missed me and my car. Had the top been on she wouldn't have made the jump!

 

[komiko]

Parking lots...ughhhh..
First few months with the car in 2011... I parked at the grocery store... very close...as in one of the spots nearest to the entrance of the store - very congested. I come out to leave, in the car, about to start her up and back out - looking behind me -when I see another car - minivan w/ two very large women backing out of their spot , sort of opposite my car, behind me. My life flashed before my eyes as i saw them heading into my rear clam, oblivious to anything other that their conversation about Easter candy, and how that might adversely impact their Weight Watcher's goals. I leaned on the horn and yelled as loud as i could - one lady turned and looked - saw the impending impact and told her friend to stop. She stopped 1/2" from the rear clam. Moral of this story? You figure it out. I park on the fringes now. Don't know what the hell i was thinking.

Great idea for a thread btw.

 

[451]

Had several "oh s***" moments in traffic but two that stand out are the classic car/truck in front stops and decides to throw it in reverse coming within inches of my front clam (while I'm honking and shouting out the window). Real. Men. Of. Genius.

 

[Coyne]

There are quite a few of these for me... But let's do the most recent.
On the off ramp to turn left under a portion of the 101 at Tatum, on the inside left turn lane heading to the mall. Lights turns a verdant shade of green and I give the car in front of me a few lengths before I proceed, suddenly 90% of the way through the turn (big turn, high speed) all the cars in front of me slam on their brakes!
Phew, I left space, and I reassure myself that I will stop with room to spare.
I glance at my rear view out of habit when braking hard to see the truck behind me advancing at his original speed... And the side of his face as he looks off to his right .
"Sh-------t!" I growl deep in my throat as I realize there is no WAY he will stop in time. Not unless a rampaging elephant sideswipes him, or if he pissed off a Jedi earlier. Glancing in my side view mirrors, and thanking my obsessive compulsive nature that I had adjusted them properly that morning, I looked for an out.
Now, I don't need to remind anyone here that our mirrors have the visual equivalent of a peephole from 10 feet away, or that they tend to vibrate slightly when you are driving over bumps.
I quickly confirmed that there were no pachyderms or space samurai in the lane beside me, which was only occupied by an oncoming SUV...
All of this happening in the space of half a second (yes, even the elephant part), I quickly signaled and maneuvered into an emergency strafe to the right lane, while accelerating to avoid the SUV.
My fiancé' visage quailed like she had just learned land sharks are a thing, and tried to brace herself on anything in the spartan cabin.
I hear tires squealing to my left followed by a skipping noise and my side view indicates that the truck had realized his predicament.

He stopped 6" (inches) from the cars bumper.

I did a mental check confirming with my vast resources of spatial awareness, that the Elise is slightly longer than 6" nose to tail. I grinned at my fiancé like a madman, eyes alight with the insanity of a rampaging elephant, and quietly thanked some fantastic engineers in Hethel (and Newtonian physics) for my nimble little car.

 

[David Craig]

There are quite a few of these for me... But let's do the most recent.
On the off ramp to turn left under a portion of the 101 at Tatum, on the inside left turn lane heading to the mall. Lights turns a verdant shade of green and I give the car in front of me a few lengths before I proceed, suddenly 90% of the way through the turn (big turn, high speed) all the cars in front of me slam on their brakes!
Phew, I left space, and I reassure myself that I will stop with room to spare.
I glance at my rear view out of habit when braking hard to see the truck behind me advancing at his original speed... And the side of his face as he looks off to his right .
"Sh-------t!" I growl deep in my throat as I realize there is no WAY he will stop in time. Not unless a rampaging elephant sideswipes him, or if he pissed off a Jedi earlier. Glancing in my side view mirrors, and thanking my obsessive compulsive nature that I had adjusted them properly that morning, I looked for an out.
Now, I don't need to remind anyone here that our mirrors have the visual equivalent of a peephole from 10 feet away, or that they tend to vibrate slightly when you are driving over bumps.
I quickly confirmed that there were no pachyderms or space samurai in the lane beside me, which was only occupied by an oncoming SUV...
All of this happening in the space of half a second (yes, even the elephant part), I quickly signaled and maneuvered into an emergency strafe to the right lane, while accelerating to avoid the SUV.
My fiancé' visage quailed like she had just learned land sharks are a thing, and tried to brace herself on anything in the spartan cabin.
I hear tires squealing to my left followed by a skipping noise and my side view indicates that the truck had realized his predicament.

He stopped 6" (inches) from the cars bumper.

I did a mental check confirming with my vast resources of spatial awareness, that the Elise is slightly longer than 6" nose to tail. I grinned at my fiancé like a madman, eyes alight with the insanity of a rampaging elephant, and quietly thanked some fantastic engineers in Hethel (and Newtonian physics) for my nimble little car.

Lucky you acted so quickly. At stop lights I am always visualizing escape routes to the left or right.

 

[cch1]

I had an incident remarkably similar to Coyne's --on the day I bought the car. Here's the meat of a post I made after my heart rate stabilized:

About those brakes: cruising north on I95 near Brunswick GA in heavy traffic at about 85 mph (indicated) and suddenly in front of me brake lights are lighting up, tires are screeching and smoking. I press the stop button vigorously while checking my rear view mirror and there is an SUV doing a nose dive right off my bumper with the driver's eyes as big as headlamps... I ease up on the brakes a bit and steer into the left breakdown lane and come to an uneventful stop beside the Camry that had been in front of me. A quick look in the passenger side mirror shows the SUV about three feet behind the Camry with the driver still white knuckled on the steering wheel as the suspension unloads. My daughter (cramped in the passenger seat listening to tunes with the noise cancelling headphones) never even looked up. The Camry driver seemed surprised to see me right at his left door, but he too just barely missed ramming the car in front of him and was probably looking to mop up his pants puddle. Chalk one up for accident avoidance instead of accident survival -if I had been in many cars, I would have been bashed from behind by the SUV (and perhaps rammed into the rear of the Camry). As it was, I came *this* close to needing new front and rear clams three hours after buying the car.

There are quite a few of these for me... But let's do the most recent.
On the off ramp to turn left under a portion of the 101 at Tatum, on the inside left turn lane heading to the mall. Lights turns a verdant shade of green and I give the car in front of me a few lengths before I proceed, suddenly 90% of the way through the turn (big turn, high speed) all the cars in front of me slam on their brakes!
Phew, I left space, and I reassure myself that I will stop with room to spare.
I glance at my rear view out of habit when braking hard to see the truck behind me advancing at his original speed... And the side of his face as he looks off to his right .
"Sh-------t!" I growl deep in my throat as I realize there is no WAY he will stop in time. Not unless a rampaging elephant sideswipes him, or if he pissed off a Jedi earlier. Glancing in my side view mirrors, and thanking my obsessive compulsive nature that I had adjusted them properly that morning, I looked for an out.
Now, I don't need to remind anyone here that our mirrors have the visual equivalent of a peephole from 10 feet away, or that they tend to vibrate slightly when you are driving over bumps.
I quickly confirmed that there were no pachyderms or space samurai in the lane beside me, which was only occupied by an oncoming SUV...
All of this happening in the space of half a second (yes, even the elephant part), I quickly signaled and maneuvered into an emergency strafe to the right lane, while accelerating to avoid the SUV.
My fiancé' visage quailed like she had just learned land sharks are a thing, and tried to brace herself on anything in the spartan cabin.
I hear tires squealing to my left followed by a skipping noise and my side view indicates that the truck had realized his predicament.

He stopped 6" (inches) from the cars bumper.

I did a mental check confirming with my vast resources of spatial awareness, that the Elise is slightly longer than 6" nose to tail. I grinned at my fiancé like a madman, eyes alight with the insanity of a rampaging elephant, and quietly thanked some fantastic engineers in Hethel (and Newtonian physics) for my nimble little car.

 

[philethier]

My closest call in the Lotus was driving right through a red light at normal speed. It was in an industrial area of town that luckily had no traffic going the other way.

My wife told me about the light when I had already entered the intersection.

I don't know why I didn't notice the light. It is weird because I spend a lot of time worrying about small parking lot accidents and this time it could have been a major accident.

I was in the Subaru headed to a Triumph club meeting (yeah, the Stag should make it next month) and was a bit slow starting up from the green light at Post Road by MSP airport. Good thing I was slow. A minivan blew through the red light at about 45. My wife has been off driving after surgery on her clutch foot. She said she would have been really bummed if the Subi got totalled as she had not had much time to drive it yet.

 

[derrek1280]

My fiancé' visage quailed like she had just learned land sharks are a thing, and tried to brace herself on anything in the spartan cabin.

Land sharks are a real thing:
http://www.landsharklager.com/images/photo_locator.jpg

 

[BULLETTIME]

I've had quite a few close calls, but admittedly, most of them I brought upon myself (spirited driving in the rain, waiting to long to change rear tires, etc...) But in the most recent one, I wasn't even behind the wheel. I walked out of GameStop, and saw an elderly guy in a large pickup truck parked across from me, start backing out of his spot way too far. He didn't even turn the wheel, just kept going straight back. He was less than a foot from the Elise, and still going when I yelled "HEEEEYYYYYY!!!!" He hit the brakes and looked over at me. I pointed at my car and walked up to it. "Wow, I didn't even see that there. I thought that parking spot was empty", is what he said. The trailer hitch on his truck was literally 3 inches from my front clam. Sigh of relief, but no harm no foul, so I told him to be more careful, and hopped in my car. As the guy drove off, I noticed a few people in the lot were staring at me. Some guy walked up, so I put down the window. He told me "that was one of the loudest screams I've ever heard". I thought he was trolling at first, but he mentioned my Asking Alexandria t-shirt (I f-ing love that band), and said he played guitar for a local metal band, and they were looking for a "screamer". I declined, but we had a good laugh about the whole thing.

 

[Kimgt]

^^^Haha, that's funny!

my most recent one:
was approaching an intersection with a green light, was going at a 45-50 mph steady speed when a truck in the left turn lane decided he wanted to go straight instead, he pulled right in front of me, cutting me off in the middle of the intersection, we were probably less than a foot apart. I hit the clutch and brake, as he speeds away. before I can catch up he pulls into the mall, down the street. Honestly thought about following him down into the lot but I had a date later that night.

 

[TauriJames]

*"Not unless a rampaging elephant sideswipes him, or if*he pissed off a Jedi earlier", is a really funny reference. I laughed out loud on that one.

I'm always glad these cars are great on braking. Since I also ride a motorcycle I am a lot more aware of surroundings and what other people are doing.

 

[Coyne]

*"Not unless a rampaging elephant sideswipes him, or if*he pissed off a Jedi earlier", is a really funny reference. I laughed out loud on that one.

I'm always glad these cars are great on braking. Since I also ride a motorcycle I am a lot more aware of surroundings and what other people are doing.

:up: Cheers! I think that my experiences riding deaths coattails on a motorcycle have helped immensely. Always aware , always assuming everyone is trying to kill me.

 

[glb]

This is a good thread idea.

Not thought about this for years, but was driving my new '65 GTO, leaving the Holland Tunnel into NJ.

4 lanes funnel into two, always a tricky area.

I stop about a car length from the stopped car in front of me.

Glance in mirrors where I see a car I can't imagine will stop in time.

I move up to 1" of the car in front. Hear brakes screeching.

That car ended up less than a foot from my rear bumper.

 

[glb]

Funnier:

Driving my bugeye Sprite to NJ shore.

Leaving the GSP on a long, sweeping exit ramp...which is 2 lanes.

Not in a hurry, sort of dawdling.

Girlfriend asks why I have hit the brakes.

There is a Corvair fast approaching, with 4 guys in it and is going WAY too fast for this turn.

I let him pass, he spins, jumps the curbing and narrowly misses the light pole.

Often I stop to help, but this guy earned his accident.

---

Hour or two later, GF and I are ambling along the boardwalk, when we hear a sound as if a garbage truck was crushing metal cans.

We turn and see the Corvair slowing driving down the street....with all 4 wheels pointed in different directions.

 

[qu1Z]

I was in a Viper and a BMW almost hit us. Got a video of it