Baby you can drive my car..

Not last Thursday, but the one before that, I got in a car accident. I was just getting onto the bottom end of Hwy. 8 heading North towards Waterloo. It was really snowy, and slippery, and everybody was driving very cautiously.. except for the guy behind me. Which was unfortunate. When everybody slowed down, I slowed down with them, but the guy behind me was too close, and going too fast. He jumped on the brakes, which sent him completely sideways and into the car beside him, which then slammed directly into me. My back right side was handily shmucked.. bumper and side panel and hatch, and i was spun around, at which point my front right side received a good schelacking as well.

Mike King at Louie's in Leamington did a fantastic job on the body work, and in no time I was out the door with what looked like a brand new set of wheels.

On Friday of last week, I was just exiting onto Hwy. 8 heading North towards Waterloo. It was really snowy, and slippery, and everybody was driving very cautiously.. except for the guy two cars behind me. Which was unfortunate. When the car in front of me hooked a wheel and got sideways, I had a good 50 meters between him and me, and slowing down was no problem. The semi-truck behind me had left a good distance too, and he easily slowed down when he saw the problem. However, at the exact same time as the guy in front of me was completing his 180 and ending up in the left lane of the exit ramp facing the wrong direction, a car behind the semi was getting impatient. He whipped by the semi on the left lane, and then, naturally, noticed that there was a car in his lane, facing him. His reaction, of course, was to swerve into the right lane. Unfortunately, I was in the right lane. We were all, by now, going approx. 20km/h. Except for the guy who was going approx. 60km/h.


Man, what a bummer. problem is, there is nothing you can do. There is no more helpless feeling than that of looking in your rearview when you have to slow down in the snow, and seeing a guy bearing down on you from behind at 'way too fast' km/h. You just know, and you can't move, or turn, or stop. You just suck in your breath and wait for that big noise and the annoyingly helpless sliding and spinning feeling. And a part of you wonders if the semi is going to be a third party in this whole ordeal.

Anyway... so here's the moral of the story. When it snows, and when there is snow on the road, it's slippery. There's nothing uncool about driving slowly, and driving safely. There's nothing annoying about leaving 5 car lengths between you and the guy in front of you. And may I also mention... 4 wheel drive is about the go, not the stop. If you have an SUV, and you have 4 wheel drive, you are blessed with the ability to get out of a ditch more effectively than I am. You are not any more capable of stopping. If you're driving 100 and the guy in front of you brakes, your four wheels are sliding.. not driving.

And finally, if you run into the back of another car because you were driving too fast, and you weren't paying attention, then it is highly unlikely that the driver of said other car will be interested in having you personally do the body work on his bumper so as to avoid going through insurance and having you pay for a professional to do the work.