I almost died

[GeneticBlueprint]

Or almost got in a really bad car wreck at any rate.

 

The other day I got in my pickup to go to work and my low charge light was on. I had left a new dongle plugged in over the weekend that connects to my phone so it charges and plays audio at the same time. I figured it must be faulty and drawing too much charge since my battery was drained. But figured I'd get charged back up just driving to work.

 

So I'm driving in the south end of Salt Lake and there's this mountain you have to go over to get to my work. About a mile before that my radio starts flickering and dies. Then I noticed my HVAC also wasn't running. Then right as I looked down at my gauges they all dropped to zero. The ABS light turned on meaning I didn't have electronic braking assistance anymore. All of that was quite an unsettling feeling. So I cautiously but urgently move over a few lanes to get to the last exit before climbing up and over the mountain. I barely get there in time and proceed down the exit ramp pumping my brakes on and off since I didn't have ABS anymore. I come to a stop behind the car in front of me. I look in my rearview mirror and see this typical big Utah truck coming at me. He's not slowing down. Right as I had that thought the truck slams on its brakes and there's a loud SCREEEEEECH.

 

Somehow, luckily, there is still electricity going to my spark plugs and I gun it and move over to the side and next to the car in front of me. The truck comes to a stop inches from the bumper of the car that was in front of me but is now next to me, completely occupying the space I was in a split second prior.*

 

The offramp's stoplight turned green right at that moment so I kept moving forward while my pickup was still alive. I pulled into the gas station by the offramp and put it in park. Right as I did so I lost all power and my truck just died.

 

Anyways, I lived to replace the alternator in my truck.

 

 

* Thinking about it later, I realized there was probably no electricity going to my brake lights so, while the dude should have been paying attention no matter what, my probable lack of brake lights didn't help the situation.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

And that's why I don't leave anything plugged into my vehicle for any length of time if I'm not sitting in it!

[DarkStar189]

Scary stuff and I’m glad it worked out. It’s weird how life works sometimes. You’re having car problems so you quickly get off the exit. Now that exit leads to you almost getting smashed by a huge truck. Like wtf. The car trouble wasn’t bad enough? Good on you for being observant though.

[GeneticBlueprint]

23 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

And that's why I don't leave anything plugged into my vehicle for any length of time if I'm not sitting in it!

It wasn’t the thing though! My alternator had just gone bad. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

11 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

It wasn’t the thing though! My alternator had just gone bad. 

 

That's indeed true!

[Keyser_Soze]

Mormon Jesus was looking out for you today. #Blessed

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Glad you’re ok!
 

Man this brings back memories from my first car (which was almost 20 years ago now Jesus) which ate through 3 alternators in the short time I had it so unfortunately I recognized what was going on with your car before you said it lol. I remember the power steering and windshield wipers stopped working. Luckily for me I was alone on some county backroads in rural Appalachia Ohio so no threat from other drivers. The bad part also was that I was alone on some country backroads in rural Appalachia Ohio and this was before cell phones. So I had to, horror of horrors, knock on a strangers door in the stormy dark to call the pizza place I worked at that I wouldn’t be able to get back and to get help. 
 

good times

[GeneticBlueprint]

45 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Glad you’re ok!
 

Man this brings back memories from my first car (which was almost 20 years ago now Jesus) which ate through 3 alternators in the short time I had it so unfortunately I recognized what was going on with your car before you said it lol. I remember the power steering and windshield wipers stopped working. Luckily for me I was alone on some county backroads in rural Appalachia Ohio so no threat from other drivers. The bad part also was that I was alone on some country backroads in rural Appalachia Ohio and this was before cell phones. So I had to, horror of horrors, knock on a strangers door in the stormy dark to call the pizza place I worked at that I wouldn’t be able to get back and to get help. 
 

good times

Three alternators? Dang. There had to be something in your charging system overworking it. For this one I just replaced I think the culprit was my battery being some old cheap thing causing it to constantly be working. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

11 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

Three alternators? Dang. There had to be something in your charging system overworking it. For this one I just replaced I think the culprit was my battery being some old cheap thing causing it to constantly be working. 

Yeah it was a pos, but for $700 it was a decent car back then, even though it was 16 years old at the time. Bought it from an old lady, Chevy Celebrity. The alternator was the only issue and only had about 15k miles on it

[SaysWho?]

I’d have shit bricks if I saw a truck barreling down like that. Glad you’re okay.

[Nokra]

Damn dude, glad you came out of that one ok; way to be present and aware of your surroundings. You saved your own ass there! 

[Brick]

That right there is the reason I was taught in driving school not to stop right behind the person in front of me, and instead stop a little further back, watch my rearview, and as the person behind me comes closer, then I can inch closer to the person in front of me, while still stopping when the top of my hood meets the bottom of their tires that way there's still enough room in front in case I need to make a quick lane change. 

 

The other day I was driving on the freeway, and traffic had stopped, and I look in my rearview to see the guy behind me not even looking in front of him, but off to his right, and he was coming up fast. I guess his collision detection must have started warning him because then he suddenly braked while I was inching towards the guy in front of me, hoping ding dong behind me wasn't going to rear-end me. 

[DarkStar189]

34 minutes ago, Brick said:

That right there is the reason I was taught in driving school not to stop right behind the person in front of me, and instead stop a little further back, watch my rearview, and as the person behind me comes closer, then I can inch closer to the person in front of me, while still stopping when the top of my hood meets the bottom of their tires that way there's still enough room in front in case I need to make a quick lane change. 

 

The other day I was driving on the freeway, and traffic had stopped, and I look in my rearview to see the guy behind me not even looking in front of him, but off to his right, and he was coming up fast. I guess his collision detection must have started warning him because then he suddenly braked while I was inching towards the guy in front of me, hoping ding dong behind me wasn't going to rear-end me. 

The past week I feel like I’ve seen way more bad drivers than usual.  At different times on Friday, I had 3 people drift into my lane over the yellow line like their trying to head on me. On the highway I watched some piece of shit speed on to the shoulder of the highway, speed past 2 cars and whip 2 lanes over. The only reason an accident didn’t happen was because everybody else was slamming on their brakes. People need to pay attention and chill the fuck out.

[Brick]

2 hours ago, DarkStar189 said:

The past week I feel like I’ve seen way more bad drivers than usual.  At different times on Friday, I had 3 people drift into my lane over the yellow line like their trying to head on me. On the highway I watched some piece of shit speed on to the shoulder of the highway, speed past 2 cars and whip 2 lanes over. The only reason an accident didn’t happen was because everybody else was slamming on their brakes. People need to pay attention and chill the fuck out.

 

People also need to stop tailgating and learn what driving at a safe distance behind is. I swear the amount of times I've looked into my rearview mirror, only to see some asshole's grill, and I'm thinking "back the fuck up" is infuriating. It's not like I'm being slow, I'm going fast while remaining a safe distance, and I'll eventually change lanes, only for the guy who was behind me to then zoom up and tailgate the guy who was in front of me. 

 

People need to chill out, and slow down. You're really not saving that much time, it's not a race, and often times you're really not getting that much ahead, especially when you zip by me going 40 over the speed limit, and yet I end up right behind you anyway while we wait at a red light. 

[DarkStar189]

@Brick my favorite mental gymnastic I commonly see is when someone puts their turn signal on to switch lanes, the person currently in that lane hits the gas to speed up and not let the person over. Person switches lane anyway so other person now has to slam on brake. Like you just wasted gas and brakes for literally no reason and now you’re tailgating the person out of anger

[Nokra]

I really wish we had more traffic cops and that the laws were enforced. So many dangerous drivers in their 2-ton death machines.  The number of people who drive like they're the only ones on the road or that they have no responsibility for the safety of others (tailgating, failing to use turn signals, speeding, etc.) is infuriating. 

 

Here in Portland, OR it's also kind of a goddamn miracle if you even see a cop after an accident, let alone making traffic stops. I live by a busy and dangerous intersection that is currently getting a stoplight installed, but last night I was sitting in my living room and suddenly heard a loud crunch, looked out, and saw that two cars had t-boned at the intersection (probably going around 20-30 mph I would guess; bad enough that airbags had deployed on both vehicles). Several other people had stopped to make sure the drivers were OK (they were), and I kept looking out every once in a while to see if an ambulance or cop showed up. Even after an hour, nothing. When I had my catalytic converter stolen from my car a couple years ago, they never even came; they just asked me to fill out a report online.  @Fizzzzle can probably confirm what a shitshow Portland police are at the moment. 

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, Nokra said:

I really wish we had more traffic cops and that the laws were enforced. So many dangerous drivers in their 2-ton death machines.  The number of people who drive like they're the only ones on the road or that they have no responsibility for the safety of others (tailgating, failing to use turn signals, speeding, etc.) is infuriating.

 

I don't wish we had more traffic cops but having the laws being enforced would be nice.

 

I've been pulled over 3 or 4 times for trivial shit, if there are more cops they are definitely pulling me over more for nothing.

[GeneticBlueprint]

16 hours ago, Brick said:

That right there is the reason I was taught in driving school not to stop right behind the person in front of me, and instead stop a little further back, watch my rearview, and as the person behind me comes closer, then I can inch closer to the person in front of me, while still stopping when the top of my hood meets the bottom of their tires that way there's still enough room in front in case I need to make a quick lane change. 

 

The other day I was driving on the freeway, and traffic had stopped, and I look in my rearview to see the guy behind me not even looking in front of him, but off to his right, and he was coming up fast. I guess his collision detection must have started warning him because then he suddenly braked while I was inching towards the guy in front of me, hoping ding dong behind me wasn't going to rear-end me. 

 

Yeah for sure. I didn't have much of a choice in my situation unfortunately.