This was not a good weather day.
I got to my car around 3:09. The sky to the west (and not very far at all to the west) was a VERY dark blue, the kind you see with a storm coming in. I needed to drive to the north and east, so I figured if I left right away, I could stay ahead of it.
Decided to stay off interstates because there's been construction lately, and I didn't want anything unplanned to slow me down. I know all of the back roads, and I started making my way north, then east, then north, etc.
I was staying ahead of the front (barely). When I was going north, there would be openings in the trees that lined most of the roads, driveways and open fields, as examples, where the straight line wind was blowing so hard, it looked like something I've only previously seen in movies. Just concentrated, HARD wind. Not gusts, but WIND.
On one such road, I came upon a tree that had blown over and was laying across the road. This forced me to backtrack a half mile, and that proved to be enough for the storm to catch up to me. For the next 20 minutes I was riding the front like a surfer riding a huge wave. It was loud, rainy, and thundery, but I was doing fine.
With the increase in rain, I was unable to drive any faster than 55 mph most of the time. Even with that, I was still going to be a few minutes late, but not so late they'd make me reschedule. This mattered because this particular doctor is scheduled a year out, and I really needed to be seen. Had it not been for those factors, I might have found shelter and waited it out. Did I mention it was a Severe T-Storm Warning this whole time?
A bit further along, I was driving a long stretch of straight, flat, northbound road. Either I had gotten back ahead of the front, or it had moved to the east and I was just north of it. Either way, the roads were very wet, and I still couldn't get above 55 without hydroplaning.
Amid these conditions, I approached a gentle S-curve in the road, at the center of which was an east-west cross street. In normal conditions, it's such a gentle curve that you don't even have to slow down to easily scoot through it. This time? I was maybe going 50 as I approached it.
I angled my steering wheel to the left, as I've probably done 100 times before at this particular spot. I felt my car hydroplane, and then it began to oversteer to the left. It's plausible (thought I'm not terribly sure) that a gust of wind hit me at that exact moment, and caused my front end to overturn to the left.
Feeling this, I turned into the skid (as one does), and it didn't work - at least, not to allow me to regain control of the car. I kept rotating to my left while my car also crossed the center line and was quickly approaching the shoulder on the other side of the road.
As I realized I wasn't regaining control, and that I was about to go off the road on the other side, I calmly but firmly said, "Fuck." I didn't yell it, but just said it. Tacit confession that I was about to go through something. Then I braced myself: both hands on the sides of the steering wheel as I saw that I was now perpendicular to the road, still trying to steer into the skid.
In the blink of an eye (literally), my front wheels went into the far shoulder, the car whipped around another 90 degrees, such that I was now facing south, my car fully in the grass off the side of the road and rolling backwards, mud and grass splashing up all over the back of my car. A half second later I opened my eyes, and my car was on the cross street, still facing south, meaning I was now perpendicular to the cross street. I was fully stopped. Completely still.
I sat for a few seconds, waiting to see if any warnings lit up on my dashboard. I figured something had to be wrong, but there was literally nothing. I didn't even feel an impact of any kind, but just came to a stop once I came back on the pavement. My front tires were a few inches off the road, so I put the car in reverse, backed up a foot, and then went on my way as if nothing had happened.
I genuinely wish I could see a video of this all going down. It happened so fast, and then I just took off so quickly, that I bet it looked pretty cool. Like something out of an action movie.
Two miles up the road, I said to myself, "DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?"
It did. I'm sure because when I got home, a neighbor kid, who had been outside, walked up and told me something was scraping the ground under my car. I looked, and sure enough, the plastic piece that runs parallel to the ground, on the underside of the right-front corner, had come loose and was folded under, pinned between the car and the ground. With a little effort, I unfolded it and pushed it back into place. Then I saw the panel surrounding the wheel well had come loose in two spots, so I clipped those back on. TA-DA. All good! Like it never happened.
I am really lucky there wasn't another car in that area when I spun out. I also drove back that way today, and I realize now that I kind of threaded a needle, missing two road signs. Those would have definitely made things worse, probably (at least) causing my air bags to deploy.
So yeah, still kind of amazed at the whole thing. At the doctor, when I explained what had happened, they joked that my blood pressure would be high. It wasn't. It never is, unless I'm sick.
Also, I broke my toe on Sunday morning.
Bye!
Amid these conditions, I approached a gentle S-curve in the road, at the center of which was an east-west cross street. In normal conditions, it's such a gentle curve that you don't even have to slow down to easily scoot through it. This time? I was maybe going 50 as I approached it.
I angled my steering wheel to the left, as I've probably done 100 times before at this particular spot. I felt my car hydroplane, and then it began to oversteer to the left. It's plausible (thought I'm not terribly sure) that a gust of wind hit me at that exact moment, and caused my front end to overturn to the left.
Feeling this, I turned into the skid (as one does), and it didn't work - at least, not to allow me to regain control of the car. I kept rotating to my left while my car also crossed the center line and was quickly approaching the shoulder on the other side of the road.
As I realized I wasn't regaining control, and that I was about to go off the road on the other side, I calmly but firmly said, "Fuck." I didn't yell it, but just said it. Tacit confession that I was about to go through something. Then I braced myself: both hands on the sides of the steering wheel as I saw that I was now perpendicular to the road, still trying to steer into the skid.
In the blink of an eye (literally), my front wheels went into the far shoulder, the car whipped around another 90 degrees, such that I was now facing south, my car fully in the grass off the side of the road and rolling backwards, mud and grass splashing up all over the back of my car. A half second later I opened my eyes, and my car was on the cross street, still facing south, meaning I was now perpendicular to the cross street. I was fully stopped. Completely still.
I sat for a few seconds, waiting to see if any warnings lit up on my dashboard. I figured something had to be wrong, but there was literally nothing. I didn't even feel an impact of any kind, but just came to a stop once I came back on the pavement. My front tires were a few inches off the road, so I put the car in reverse, backed up a foot, and then went on my way as if nothing had happened.
I genuinely wish I could see a video of this all going down. It happened so fast, and then I just took off so quickly, that I bet it looked pretty cool. Like something out of an action movie.
Two miles up the road, I said to myself, "DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?"
It did. I'm sure because when I got home, a neighbor kid, who had been outside, walked up and told me something was scraping the ground under my car. I looked, and sure enough, the plastic piece that runs parallel to the ground, on the underside of the right-front corner, had come loose and was folded under, pinned between the car and the ground. With a little effort, I unfolded it and pushed it back into place. Then I saw the panel surrounding the wheel well had come loose in two spots, so I clipped those back on. TA-DA. All good! Like it never happened.
I am really lucky there wasn't another car in that area when I spun out. I also drove back that way today, and I realize now that I kind of threaded a needle, missing two road signs. Those would have definitely made things worse, probably (at least) causing my air bags to deploy.
So yeah, still kind of amazed at the whole thing. At the doctor, when I explained what had happened, they joked that my blood pressure would be high. It wasn't. It never is, unless I'm sick.
Also, I broke my toe on Sunday morning.
Bye!
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