So I\'m driving highway Route 23 coming home from work this afternoon.
I was going maybe 60, 65 in the 55 zone and I was traveling in the fast lane. I was approaching two cars in the slow lane and was about to overtake them.
As I entered the blindspot of the first car, a blue minivan, it pulled out to pass the car ahead.
All of a sudden I had this minivan cutting me off. I had to jump on the brakes.
The minivan continued right into my lane forcing me to steer left.
My left front tire dropped off the pavement, a few inches to the grass median. As the minivan started to pull away, I steered back into my lane.
When I came back in, I lost control of the car and the back swung out to the left. I steered against the spin, but started to spin the other way.
I couldn\'t counter that spin and ended up sliding sideways, backwards off the road, back into the median. I was facing the wrong end of the highway as I slid off.
I got out pissed but the other cars kept going. Since I was in the van\'s blindspot, he probably never even saw me wipe out behind him.
I flagged the next guy to call a cop for me and had the car back in good shape to drive even before the cop showed up.
I was lucky in several ways. The first is that I kept the van from hitting me in the first place. The second is that no one was behind me when I spun out. Then when I slid off the road, I was about 3 feet from clipping a small metal rod stuck in the ground that would\'ve f\'ed up my rear fender. I also came to a stop with my rear ending up in some thick bushes. A few feet earlier and I would\'ve smashed the back end on a tree. On top of that, I wasn\'t injured, no tires lost air, no body work or under carriage was damaged, and the worst appears to be some dirt streaks and possibly a few light scratches under the rear passenger door.
Left some funky tire tracks, too.
Quite a ride.
-Dan
