That Was A Close One

I once heard a comedian say that top athletes who lose a major event by seconds (or fractions of) must measure everything for the rest of the their lives by that standard. I'm doing a little of the same today based on a really close call I had in my car today.

The wife and I were coming back from some Christmas shopping. We live, essentially, on top of a mountain and our street has a pretty high pitch. We live almost at the top, on one side of the cul-de-sac. Directly across from our driveway (which is relatively flat) is the neighbor's driveway which is a very steep hill. Right after we moved in, I commented that "I hope their emergency break holds or we're going to meet their car one day".

Guess what happened today?

Jen and I had just pulled in the driveway and I hadn't even put my car in park yet when we heard a crash behind us. I looked up, and saw the neighbor's pickup truck in the street, sans driver, at the edge of my driveway. I put the car in park and jumped out to meet the neighbor woman who was frantically coming down the driveway. My first thought, was whether she was ok, as I wasn't yet sure what had happened. Her truck, had slipped out of gear, rolled backwards down the driveway, crossed the street, went up the curb to one side of my driveway, slammed into my tree and then rolled back into the street. The truck bumper looked like she'd hit a street light doing about 30 mph and the tailgate was dented in pretty good. The tree had some pretty deep gouges but it had at least stopped the truck from landing in my sideyard.

Had we been about 4 seconds later coming home, it would have broadsided my car and specifically the driver's side.

The neighbor said that when the truck slipped gear, she tried to grab the door handle and stop it but couldn't. She said she then saw us coming up the street and was certain we were going to hit. She kept saying over and over "that was so close". I felt really bad for her because she was obviously embarassed. The bed of the truck was full of Christmas decorations and other assorted junk which had been thrown into mine and my neighbor's yard. I helped her clean it up and then her son and I pushed the truck back into her driveway. As a precaution, I stuck a 4x4 behind her rear wheel to keep it from happening again.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics for the blog. I went out to photograph the truck damage but the family was out there and I thought saying "this will make a great blog entry" would have been tasteless. By the time I went back out, the truck had been towed away.

I also remember that people say most car accidents happen within 5 miles of your home. I just didn't realize it was 5 feet.