Two weeks ago I was motoring home after a long day of…driving around picking-up and delivering stuff. Why? I’m a courier, and that is the job description; pick something up from one client and deliver it to another client. In fact that is the way I got the odometer on the Dakota to read what it did (see below) but, I digress.
I was traveling on Highway 13 toward Highway 24 and then on towards Walnut Creek and Concord, and home.
Highway 13 is a four lane highway at the base of the Oakland hills and we commuters were moving along in smartly, like parallel snakes with the segments made up of cars.
Being commute traffic, we all were into a rhythm of the gentle speeding up and slowing as the traffic undulates up the hills and down the hills with the road, and all was going smoothly as it does every day.
In the neighborhood of a mile from the junction of 24 is the final rise of the road before a downhill where the Berkeley traffic begins merging left to continue on and we began working our way into the right lane to be set-up for the off ramp.
Just before the crest is a pedestrian overpass…
With about a dozen kids…
Waving.
I waved.
It was no more than two seconds, more like one;
“OHSHITCRAPDAMMIT!” “WhydidIlook”
Both feet on the brake pedal. Looking down out the windshield at the too-near car.
“My ‘Scary Good Tundra Brakes’ aren’t going to stop me” WHAM!
“BLAM!”
Said the air bag.
Blinding, stinky, dust everywhere.
Damn bag blocking my vision so I couldn’t steer, so I am using karate and pawing at it trying to get it out of the way but every time I pushed it away, it popped up somewhere else.
Finally off the road and stopped, I popped off the seat belt opened the door and fought my way past the air bag to check on the driver … of the BMW…
And the Corolla he hit.
Fortunately, BMW makes supremely safe automobiles. I told the driver not to move but, to do sort of like a ‘systems check’ and notice if he hurt anywhere and if everything worked. Eventually he said he was fine, just shocked, and I pushed his car completely off the road out of the way of traffic.
The first of three Oakland Police Motorcycle officers stopped, asked what happened, asked if anybody needed an ambulance and, upon hearing that all was copacetic and that the Highway Patrol and a AAA tow truck had been called, he left. The other Motors did the same thing. Amazing to me, as I don’t recollect ever seeing a motorcycle officer on this stretch of road.
The Corolla driver came back and we all preceded the exchange of information and had just finished when the CHP Police Interceptor pulled up. We gave all the information to him.
I gave the Corolla driver a bungee and hooked it up so his sprung trunk stayed closed.
The BMW rear bumper was against the wheel and the car wouldn’t start.
I drove home.
I couldn’t understand why the seatbelt was so short I couldn’t buckle it and it was jammed. It is self-retracting in an accident.
[The TRW Active Control Retractor (ACR) links active and passive safety systems. ACR is designed to use braking and stability control sensor information to sense a potential accident. The system removes the seatbelt slack to help better position the occupant in relation to the vehicle’s airbag restraint system.]
Who would-a-thunk it! In an accident the seat belt doesn’t just stop me, it actively pulls me back.
SO:
$3,594.56 for all the parts, including;
$1,580.75 for the airbag parts and new retracting seat belt.
$611.88 for the expert to come install, test and re-program everything.
To Make ‘Clyde The Ride’ whole again.
$8,259.09 Parts and Labor
$0 500.00 Deductible
$8,759.09
Having insurance: Priceless.
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2006 Tundra replaced a 98 Dakota 3.9 automatic, long bed retired with broken A/C, July 2008 623,000 miles on original engine and transmission, using Amsoil by-pass filters and lubrication. *Everybody knows something you don’t know. *Artists prove truth can be in forms you don’t understand.
That is an excellent illustration that things in cars happen in split seconds and one should always be paying attention. I thank you for offering your story for others to learn from.
It’s unfortunate that as I type this I’m reading another promotion from you for Amsoil, and thus find it really hard to believe your story.
Sorry, but you’ve been shilling Amsoil way too long.
Yeah, well, any time you take your eyes off the road it’s a gamble. I’m not saying I never do it, but it’s a gamble, and your experience should serve as a lesson to all. Imagine what might have happened if you’d been talking on a cell phone, or, heaven forbid, texting.
Glad to hear no one was hurt. I will remember; don’t wave.
The reason The “Amsoil Commercial” was there is because I don’t have a signature here and copied it so the (see below) would make sense.
I happen to have used the product for a million miles or so and, as I’ve stated before, I am a dealer to get the best price. I do not, have not and will not sell products here.
If I was paid for all the ‘hawking’ I do when I do what many call; “networking” the sharing of information, this would be posted from my stateroom on the world cruise of the QE-2.