Jan 17, 2006

A freaky accident

While taking off to Orlando for the Seaworld visit part-2, it happened.. On the I-75 in the afternoon, I was going on the left lane (as usual.. and at max. speed of 80+) when Isaw a piece of tyre rolling away from the highway into the curb on the left.. it was not the usual small piece but of an entire circumferance.. It was amusing, and I was looking ahead for the vehicle which lost it and gauge the situation..

The tyre seemed to merrily go into the grass but then it saw our vehicle, changed its course, came into the highway for a fraction of a second and BANG... there was a huge thud on the front left side and the tyre was tossed into the middle of the highway.. The car started making some little minor weird noises so I pulled over to the curb and checked the damage.. Oh bboy... it had smashed the left indicator lamps and heavily dented the banette. The impact was so forceful that I couldnt open the door fully comfortably.

I called the cops, reported it, but since no vehicle was seen around waiting to be towed, the cop said it was an accident for which he cant claim anybody to be at fault... Fine... still went to Sea World, enjoyed there and came back. The car is running fine.. no problem.. I drove over 1000 miles after that incident in less than a month. A few lessons learnt, thanks to those few seconds...:

*Even a relatively crowdless freeway always requires utmost attention; always look out for the rolling tyres or flying tyres. The tyres are damn heavy and at the high speeds, they are deadly.

*Those in US would have seen a lot of torn tyres on the sides of the highways and each of them must have got their own story to tell. The tyre that ricocheted from our car went to the middle lane.. it could have potentially created a major havoc akin to a chain reaction..

*Maximum alertness required at nights.. a thrown-away tyre even at one of the right lanes on a seemingly bare highways is highly probable.

* One gets only a handful of seconds to react for such 'weird' happenings.. pressing the break after sighting such a rolling tyre, without being aware of the vehicle behind is a sure disaster. Always an eye on the rear-view mirror..

11 comments:

Vijay Ramamurthi said...

totally agreed...have to be alert..since the speeds are quite high !!!!!

TamilPonnu said...

sorry to hear that!

Once I got into 2 accidents in one month.. I swore someone was out to get me..I got rear ended both times.. it was a painful month.. back bumper and passenger side was MESSED up! The most painful part was handling INSURANCE.. ugh!!

mitr_bayarea said...

hmm..too bad. Agree with you on the fact that constant vigil and alertness, especially during driving on the freeways at nights is an absolute must to prevent disaster.

tt_giant said...

Got to be ever alert!

Hmm.. Sometimes, i wonder if a crowded (and hence slow moving) interstate is better than an empty one (with fast moving cars), for driving safety!

Raju said...

Vijay, yeah.. speed is a huge factor.. I also thought that, had I gone little slower, I could have minimized/avoided the damage... but what the heck.. for the sake of such sparse, weird accidents, I dont want to spend more time on the freeway..
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Priya, mm.. I remember your post on driving last week.. we two have this thing in common.. despite fast driving, me too havent got a ticket yet.. but then, our cops are quite liberal..
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Mitr, yep.. my eyes widen up like an owl nowadays when I drive at night.. Not casual anymore...
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Deepak, i guess u are comparing I-4 vs I-75.. right? I-75 gets never crowded except probably during thanksgiving Sunday evening..
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Veda, mmm... thanks for the tag.. I was wondering how come I have been for over 2 weeks without a pending tag.. :-)

Visithra said...

Its no longer a worry that ud hit someone more of someone or something would hit u!

Hope u got the thing checked cars are like humans there might be a prob inside though not visible

NaiKutti said...

yeah, those impacts are big than we would think... even a stationary piece can do as much damage when we drive at those high speeds... take care of ur car(and driving) :-)

Vishnu said...

Awwwwwww........thats sad........ safe drive! take care!


Cheers!
:)

Raju said...

Vis, yeah.. this someone/something is totally not in our control.. Damn..

I need to take it to a mechanic.. just lazy now.. will do it soon..
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Karthik, right.. at times one can see animals lying dead.. poor creatures.. Death at the microsecond of impact..
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Vishnu, sure I will.. my average speed has come down a bit thanks to this incident..

Anu said...

Yup.. it is very true. I always have one or two bicyclists who come carelessly from side roads to freak me out once in a while.

Raju said...

Anu, bicyclists.. OMG.. they are crazy at times (reminds me of Charlie in Anniyan)..