What's the closest you've come to having a car accident?

Having a car accident

I was in a car accident once.

Patch of ice at an intersection caused me to lose traction just as I was about to go through, which saved me from getting t-boned by a truck running a red light

One time I went over a patch of ice on the highway and my car did a full 360 at 100 km/h. I was pretty sure I was about to die, but somehow I managed to straighten out and keep going without hitting anything.

If being run over counts as an accident I've had a heavy truck blast past me a foot away from my face because the guy decided that all the other cars that stopped in front of the crossing to let me go were just slow idiots.

I’ve been rear ended twice while sitting at a red light and yielding at a yield sign, so I guess as close as possible?

Last week an idiot driving on the 3rd lane. Leftmost lane. Fastest lane. However you wanna call it. Realized last second that she was gonna miss her exit from the highway.

Decides fuck spending 5-10 minutes taking the next exit. From her lane, while only like 1-2 meters past me, decides to pull in front of me and starts braking. Then does the same to the guy on my right and again to the guy trying to exit. Thankfully I was paying attention and I started braking as soon as I saw her pulling in front of me. And thankfully the guy behind me was far enough and all. Nobody hit anybody, but it was fucking scary.

People are fucking idiots.

Four athletes and a trainer, en route to a state competition. Halfway to our destination, our vehicle decided to betray us, grinding to a halt. Time was ticking, the competition loomed, and panic started to set in. We called our friend.

The rain was that sly drizzle, the kind that makes you think, "it's nothing" but then your car hydroplanes and you're suddenly facing a concrete wall.

We in hurry, the narrow road and drizzling rain set the stage for disaster. As we navigated a very sharp turn, our friend lost control and, reacting instinctively, slammed on the brakes. The car spun wildly, multiple full 360, and we finally coming to rest in a ditch. Dazed and disoriented.

Only God knows how, but we realized we were mostly unharmed, shaken but alive. And then, as if the scene wasn't dramatic enough, a massive truck roared past. A few sec earlier, and the outcome could have been, well, definitely different.

With a mix of relief and adrenaline, we climbed out. And there, just meters away, we spotted a somber reminder of our mortality - a cemetery. It was a sobering sight, and yet, we couldn't help but find humor in the irony of it all. We burst into laughter, the tension finally breaking.

That would be the time I was in a car accident. Dude came barrelling down the wrong side of the street, my father swerved to get out of his way, but not enough. The driver side of the car got smashed. Never occurred to me before, but Dad was pretty lucky to walk away from that one. Our dude was all apologies, but in court he denied he was even there that day. We had witnesses, he lost, but somehow couldn't afford to fix our car for us. We drove around like that for months.

Weirdly, I've been tapped from the back three times while stopped at traffic lights. One taxi, one SUV and one bus. Hasn't happened since I switched to driving a white car.

I hydroplaned for over a half mile on a straight section of highway doing 100kph. Thought I was going to die, but somehow the car got traction again just before I went off the road. I had 4 friends in the car who all slept through the whole thing.

I was driving an old work van on the highway, doing the speed limit of 65 mph (105 kph). As i crested the hill traffic was stopped a few hundred yards ahead. I had plenty of room to brake and come to a stop, a bit abrupt for the weight of the vehicle but no big deal. I applied the brakes and the pedal went right to the floor. The brake lines had blown out from corrosion. I was in the right lane and there was an exit ramp to my right. The stopped traffic was fast approaching. I dropped the automatic transmission into low gear (it was an older Chevy, so it had R N D 4 3 2 on the column) and swerved right, with what felt like a fraction of an inch to spare from the car in front of me. I swear I could see the sour expression of a woman who very nearly has her day ruined go by in slow motion, like that Umbrella Academy meme. The off ramp gave me time to pump the brakes and let the engine slow the vehicle down. I was fully prepared to throw it into park if necessary, but by the time I got to the intersection enough brake pressure had been regained to stop. Pulled off the road and had that POS towed to a garage.

There was the time I high-sided my motorcycle, but OP asked for almost, not actual.

I was driving on a medium sized road this winter, my first winter with a car and a driving license....

There was plenty of snow, and I had excellent winter tires with studs.

I drove through a bend in the road and as I exited the bend I saw a huge Volvo merging into the oncomming lane, and I got pissed as I saw what I though was the driver joyriding as he swerved all over.

I had exited the bend going 50-60kmh, this road has a speed limit of 70, but I took it slow as it was slippery.

Anyway, the huge Volvo XC90 was swerving all over the place and even into my lane, but somehow the Volvo driver managed to get back into his lane mere centimeters from my Seat Leon hatchback, and I saw in my mirrors that he swerved back into my lane and hit a snowbank hard enough to spray some snow.

I didn't panic and slam on my breaks during this encounter, if I had I would have lost control and had my own crash.

I was in shock though so I just kept driving to collect my thoughts, this was in the middle of the day and there were plenty of other cars on the road so I knew others would check on the guy, but after a few kms I realized that I had to go back and check on the guy myself, while I wasn't involved, it felt like the right thing to do.

So I turned back at a roundabout and when I got to the spot I saw that the guy had managed to get his car out of the snow bank snd park it on the other side of the road, I saw no dammage and the driver was talking on his mobile phone, so he seemed alright, so I just went home.

This next happened this last weekend, I was driving my car on a heavily trafficed road, I had my mom in my car as we were out getting a birthday present for my dad.

The road was just a normal 70kmh road with one lane in each direction with no barrier, but at this specific spot had very large shoulders.

Anyway, me and my mom was talking and in the middle of a sentence I see another huge Volvo in the oncomming traffic starting an overtake into my lane, I swore, quickly braked and got on to the shoulder, flashed my light and honked my horn at the guy.

Final story.

Dad was driving with me in the passenger seat, it was a late summers night in August, we were on the backroads between Uppsala and Stockholm.

It was a dark August night, there was an oncomming car, we were probably going 60-70kmh, I was half asleep, when suddenly my dad jerked the steering wheel and got into the oncomming lane, then quickly got back into our lane. This was due to a moose deciding that crossing the road is best done when there are cars from both directions passing.

Not counting the time a lady popped her clutch pulling out of her driveway and hit me, since I guess that's not "almost" an accident, probably the time I got caught out by a snowstorm, and on the way home I did a 360 on the freeway before regaining control. Thankfully there was no one else around, so it didn't hurt anything other than my pride.

I have all terrain tires and live on a dangerous road that kills 4 people a year. This road has a rock face on one side and a creek on the other side.

So it was snowing and there's about 5 inches of snow on the road and the road hadn't been plowed. This one girl, obviously not from the area who's driving a front wheel drive hatchback going 25mph and clearly never driven in snow before. She looses control and hits the rock face and the car goes back onto the road and into the creek. I almost hit her because it was either gamble with the amount of traction I currently have or slam on the brakes and lose control. I took the gamble and went around which was the smart move.

In the early days, too much Metformin.

I was coming round a bend about a day after it had rained, turns out there was a pothole under a tree that still had water in it. I clipped the water and the back end of my car started to slide out but I fishtailed for a bit till I regained control of the car without ever touching the grass on either side of the road. I’m really lucky there wasn’t any oncoming traffic because one of my neighbours died in a similar situation a year later.

Man it's gotta be the crossroads and intersections

I haven't been in it myself, but the horrors I've seen...

It's worth waiting an extra second after green-light, just to make sure you'll not be T-boned.

Getting rear ended on the highway by a drunk driver. Had all of about 1 second of warning when she slammed on her brakes and started skidding.

To the point where you hear a loud bang and some damage appears here or there.

Was lost on the airfield trying to pick up some friends. Borrowed a van, so it wasn't my car, I was lost and I was tired.

Then I fucked up and made a U-turn without looking and hit another car on the side. Nobody got hurt, but there was some damage.

Exchanged information and we each went on our way. Learned a valuable lesson that day.

So not sure if this counts, but a few slow-moving vehicles were oiling the roads with an oil hose one day in a place I used to live.

And naive me thought it was a parade, complete with random things like truck trucks that just happened to be there.

It was hot, and I thought it was a water hose, and often at parades they might use the sprayer for fun, so me, who doesn't know what she's thinking at this point, tries to pursue the hose truck at the other end of the bend and maybe ask to get sprayed. Right as I'm approaching it, though, I'm positioned in such a way that, when the slow-moving traffic suddenly became fast again, I almost get run over, only to be saved by my own bad luck.

The heat really got to me that day.