Saturday, September 5, 2009

Almost T-Boned - Missed Me By That Much...


As luck would have it I was almost t-boned by a Ford Explorer today, and in my own town no less.

I had just left my bank's drive up window. I had a nice conversation with the drive up teller, she was commenting on how cute the car was and I informed her it was all electric. She thanked me for being a loyal customer and being green. Anyway, let me get back to the near carnage....I was heading west on Rt 24 and was about to make a left onto Tempe Wick (for those who know the area). I saw the Ford on Tempe Wick at the stop sign waiting to make his left onto West bound 24....yes, I have the right if way. So as I approached my left I kept my eye on that Ford, as this is a pretty hairy intersection, he did not move. I did not need to stop to make my left as the oncoming traffic was well away so I began to cut left....as soon as I did the Ford shot out.

Now let me tell you, all I saw in my peripheral vision was that huge gaudy chrome grill, I had the window open and it was like that grill was about to comb my hair. My brain went into action, I cut a hard right back into the oncoming lane and then cut hard left back into Tempe Wick. All of this allowed the MINI to keep that grill out of my hair and slide its rear left butt cheek out of imminent danger of being trampled by that SUV. All happened in a split second but I recall waiting for that awful sound and jarring motion that comes from a bad hit. I did a hard stop and looked back to see what kind of fool was behind the wheel of that SUV. A pretty big one since he stopped in the middle of the intersection to digest what he just did. I yelled "are you crazy", he said something stupid like "you are ok" and then drove off into traffic not even looking - again!

Now I'm in a small town and I will see this guy again, maybe he is reading my post. Either way it was a 2007/2008 dark blue Ford Explorer, gaudy chrome package with a dark haired dork behind the wheel. MINI E #402 will have retribution.

Regardless of whether the MINI E is a MINI Cooper or EV it did save my booty. It reacted when I did and a more casual car would have been kissed by that Ford. The fact that this EV can handle makes zero emission driving that much more enjoyable and survivable. In addition electric motors have instant response, no downshift or engine rev. You press the accelerator and they go NOW....that also helped me out of a bad situation.

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