Friday, March 06, 2009

Another lesson on safe driving

On Wednesday as we were coming home from horseback riding lessons, driving down the freeway, about 1/4 mile before our exit, something weird happened with the car in front of us. I saw this big black thing fly up in the air, flip around a few times, and then land on the road in front of me. At first I thought it was a big cardboard box that the other car had driven over, and the wind caused it to blow up in the air, y0u know how that happens sometimes.
Because I always leave a LOT of room between my car and the car ahead of me (you know, the slow reflexes and everything), I was able to easily get into the next lane and go around the object. As we passed it, I saw that it was a big piece of metal something. Then I saw that the car in front of me had pulled over to the side. As we passed him, we saw that the HOOD OF HIS CAR HAD BLOWN OFF!!
Isn't that bizarre?!!

I had a moment realizing that if I had been following more closely, that metal hood would have gone straight through my windshield.

As we drove the rest of the way home, I had another conversation with the boys on safe driving. I told them that was a good example of why you should never follow too closely. You just never know what the car in front of you might do.
In this case, I was glad of my disability. If I had been driving "normally," we could have been in serious trouble.
That being said, I am still getting hand controls for the van. My driving evaluation is scheduled at the St. David's rehab center on March 23. But even after that, I think I will keep up my new ultra-defensive driving habits.

3 comments:

Amy F said...

I'll pass this tip on to my husband. :)

Dan and Merideth said...

OH MY GOSH!!! I cant believe that!!! I have never herd of a more bizarre thing happening!

Glad your safe! Safe drivers never annoy me, its the crazy unsafe ones that i scream at!

Rena said...

that happened to me before. Except I was the one that had the hood fly up while I was driving. It didn't detatch but it scared the crud out of me and I had to look through the little crack at the bottom to pull over to the side of the road! The latch broke so I tied it down with a twisty tie I found in the car until I could drive to the store to buy some rope. I am glad you didn't get hurt by the flying hood.