On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 04:54:53 GMT, "carl mciver"
wrote:
*snip*

Hairy story: I was in a company Astrovan on a freeway in Dallas rush
hour, inches from the zipper barrier, doing ~70 when a dumb bitch in front
of me blew a tire. In the minivan, bolted to the floor, was 1000+ pounds of
scale test weights (500 was too little for the way I liked to calibrate
scales) and lots of tools, so when she slammed on her brakes, I about ****
my pants 'cause traffic was asshole to belly button and FLYING. I stopped
short of her by two feet and was surprised that no one hit me from behind.
As I'm chewing her out for being so phenomenally stupid, I was removing her
spare from the back seat (???) and changing it as fast as I could. I could
barely touch the old rim, it was so damn hot! The sidewall was all but
gone, and when the wheel flipped to the ground in front of me there was a
pile of steaming rubber powder on the ground some four inches high and six
or so inches around. I'm sure some of this was from the sidewall that
ground away when she stomped on the brakes, but I can't see the tire
providing any stopping effort given its condition, so I'm confident most of
it was rubber that crumbled before the tire blew and was trapped inside the
tread by centrifugal force. The tread, of course, was hotter than **** and
intact. About the time I got her tire back on I started to "come down" and
the transportation truck showed up to (more kindly) explain to her how to
brake safely after a blowout. I looked back at the million car traffic jam
and there, a few cars back, were a couple folks exchanging information and
sour looks. The difference between a royal ****up of massive proportions
was merely milliseconds at that speed and it could have all been averted if
that $%^&*! had used her brain instead of her foot. Thinking back on it,
I'm sure my normal scatterbrained self would have just run over her, but for
some reason, at that very moment, I had my head screwed on right. Still get
that intense feeling when I think about it.

Or, perhaps this was a direct object lesson from a Higher
Power, telling you to get smarter about driving defensively, and,
leaving a COMFORTABLE stopping distance between you and the vehicle
in front of you, and, a parable for the rest of us about it.
Glad you survived that one...and I hope you (and everyone
that reads this) will take a second to think about it, and, leave a
bit more space the next time. Drive more defensively folks...keep
the insurance companies from posting record profits in the coming
years!
Don't use the excuse that if you leave room someone will pull
in front of you. Trust me...they are not making you take ANY
significant amount of time more to get to your destination. Even
if you are going 2 MPH slower than surrounding traffic, you are STILL
moving along at a good clip.
Which gives me an opportunity to post an interesting question
that came to me. If I am driving through a congested area (say,
downtown Atlanta, or, a construction zone) at the posted speed limit
and YOU are blasting through at 10 MPH or 20 MPH over that...which
is better - For ME to speed up to an illegal (and likely more
dangerous) speed, or for YOU to slow down a little to approach
the LEGAL speed for the area?
Regards
Dave Mundt