Well I had an experience tonight that made me love ABS and OD like no other. The Banana Wagon was almost a goner.

I was headed out to pick up my pops about 45 min away. I had to head though a T intersection about a minute away from my house. I was going straight at the intersection, (I have the right away) and the people coming onto my road had a stop sign. There are quite a few accidents there because of stupid people. There were these two kids in an explorer that I thought would f*ck me over. Well was I was about to go through the intersection (speed limit is 45, I was going 45) these two little f*ckers pulled out directly in front of me. I had about .05 seconds to react. I slammed on the brakes, took off the OD and shot to the left. If I went straight I would have t-boned this kid directly in his driver's door. If I had shot right I would have nailed a golf that was sitting behind this kid. I had one hand on the shifter and my left hand gripped the steering wheel like it stole money from me. The ABS kicked in as my foot had the brake pedal mashed to the floor board, it sounded so bad. My heart was pounding so hard and fast I thought it was going to fly out. As I have the brake mashed the kid is still coming towards me so I have to move even farther to the left, now I feel like I'm either going to take out his front end or smash the guard rail. I laid on the horn like it was my job. The ABS is still doing it's thing. The kid finally stops and I looked in my right mirror, I missed his front end by less than an inch. But I'm still headed toward the guard rail. I finally stop with my headlight smack in front of the guard rail. I would say only a couple centimeters away from nailing the guard rail. My heart is palpitating and I'm breathing very heavy. The kid and his buddy hesitate, then drive off. Mind you right now I'm completely in the other lane and the oncoming traffic comes around a blind curve at 45mph. I'm still sitting there because I'm still in shock. I then realized that I'm f*cked if someone comes around the bend, so I pull off to the shoulder because I'm hyperventilating. I've only hyperventilated once before, when I was rear-ended. I get out of the box and just sit on the side of the road, my hands were shaking, my body was shaking, I'm breathing heavy, I felt I was about to cry, but had no idea why I was going to cry. A cop was driving by and stopped to see if I was ok, I was still really shaken up. I couldn't get the kid's plate so there was nothing the cop could do.

I am so thankful for ABS and OD and the fact that Toyota built a great machine. If th e kid had gone half a second later, I would have t-boned him and probably wound up in the woods opposite him. I probably would not be here to write this either, 45mph head on, slim possibility of survival.

I've had a lot of near misses before. For some reason, people can't seem to see a Yellow Box. But this was by far the scariest near miss I've ever had. I honestly thought I was going to smash right into him and I would be a gonner.

I thank God and Toyota I'm here right now.

I made a crude illustration of what happened.

The green "X" is where I had to react. He's the black box, I'm the yellow box.

Again I thank God and Toyota I'm here right now.

 

I would have wanted to chase him down and kill him....however that isn't the answer but I have long ago resolved if I can't avoid him I am aiming for his door the soft spot so I can do as much damage to him and less to me..avoid the a pillar....

 

oh btw glad your ok

 

It's a good thing you had your eye on them. A split second of looking away and you might have hit them idiots!...
Glad you all right man! And the Box of course too...

 

glad you made it out alive!

 

Hey now! Our little boxes have outstanding frontal collision stats. The NHTSA and Insurance Institute both run their frontal crashes at about that speed. If their tests are any indication, not only would you have survived if you HAD t-boned that kid's truck, there's a very good chance you would have walked away unharmed. Physically, that is; the tests don't factor in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The kid in the Exploder would have died horribly, of course, but there's two silver linings from that: a) less stupidity in the gene pool, and b) his friend would have learned a very important lesson about stop signs!

Here, have some bourbon and read these stats, you'll feel better:
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=723

Just, um, ignore the side-impact ratings. Trust me on that one.

 

damn dude, sorry to hear that. i ____ing hate people that can't drive.

i have had people ____ with me so many times before, like changing lanes w/o signaling in front of me (and going slower) so i have to slam on the brakes. i have such a bad temper with people who dont know what they're doing.

anyway, thank god you're okay dude.
- sh00k

 

thats never a fun experience. I had a 35mph near miss (just a couple inches) last year. dude tried to pass on a 2 lane 2 way road and almost hit me head on too. nothin like slidin the box sideways for a few feet lol. you'll recover eventually, just dont kill that punk next time you see him around.

 

Great SKILLZ Big Bird!!! Most wrecks could be avoided if more people had these skills.
How come the Golf didn't get his tag number and stick around. That sux!

 

yea what matters is ur safety.yea i would of wanted to chase that guy down especially that he just drove away but u did the right thing plus u were in shock.

 

Thanks guys, appreciate it. Yeah it was a pretty scary experience. The biggest reason I shot left is I did not want to hurt the box and if I had to hit something I'd prefer the guard rail. It has much more give that a truck. The guard rail is designed to collapse some to cushion impact.

I tried to get his plates, but I could only get the reverse image of his plates in my mirror as he drove away.

 

Thanks man.

And I wondered the same thing, why he did nothing even though he was there for the whole situation. He probably would have gotten hit as well because the exploder would have shot backwards on impact. I think it comes down to, "It's Jersey" no one really cares about each other here. I've seen countless times where there is total disregard for human life here in Jersey.

 

^^^Sad but true. I've been in Jersy enough to see that also.
I'm just grateful that you and your box came away unscathed.

 

sounds like a hell of an experience...glad your ok

 

I hate the xB's ABS system, it kicks in way to early for those of us with better tires than the factory stuff. With my sticky 215/40-17s the ABS (and VSC for that matter) kick in way before my tires are anywhere near the limit. It kicks in so early, actually, that it's almost dangerous.

I'm glad you stopped in time, but honestly, if you have tires stickier than stock, you could have probably stopped much faster if the ABS weren't so intrusive. Brake modulation ftw.

 

^^^Nothing wrong with my ABS, especially "kicking in" early!

 

Mine neither. It never even kicked in during my autocrossing event. He may have an issue with his,

 

My ABS kicked in when I needed it, I would have liked it to kikc in sooner, scared the crap outta me.

And I have sticky tires so I got no problem

 

Seems like the kid would have to go a half second sooner for you to T-bone him. He pulled out late enough for you to miss him.

 

ok, yeah you were there you know exactly how it went.

And like I stated, it's a crude illustration, not drawn to scale.