Karl Wittnebel via Mercedes <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>
June 4, 2017 at 11:21 PM
Man I could not agree more about the importance of the car weight/size.
Yesterday I am at Sunset and Barrington. Four lanes on Sunset plus a turn
lane in the middle. Two going my direction on Barrington, headed left onto
eastbound sunset. I am in the right of two left turn lanes.
The two roads are nearly parallel, then barrington does a little dog leg
left into the light at sunset. So it is almost a 150 degree left turn
after
the light. A Tacoma was sitting next to me on my left, going my direction,
and we were both turning left. That is the hairpin direction, so not
possible to see oncoming cars from the left.
After watching a number of cars sail through totally red lights here over
the years, and reading about accidents at this intersection, I adopted The
Rule: I am never the first guy into ANY intersection after the light turns
green - under any circumstance. Guy next to me reading a paper? I am
like a
zen master. If a two lane road, I am like a soap box derby car off the
line, but later and slower.
So our left turn arrow turns green. I wait for the tacoma to go first. He
hesitates a couple of seconds, for whatever reason. No problem - I
wait. He
meanders forward. I follow. We are both across lane #1, almost into lane 2
when some crazy lady in a mid size suv blows through the intersection on
Sunset from the left at full tilt, going 40+. She is looking straight
forward, like nothing unusual is going on. Red lip stick. Short brown
hair.
Maybe in her 50s. No braking, no panic, no swerving, no mouth open, no
apparent awareness of anything unusual - just driving. My hood
ornament was
practically spinning. Then she is gone, and the day goes on, like a giant
meteor almost hit the earth, but didn't: the cretaceous extinction never
happened, and diplodocuses are still roaming around.
I am so glad the Tacoma hesitated a bit, or she would have certainly taken
him into us. I am also glad that I did not cane it on the green, as
the 4.2
liter v8 would certainly have launched me out ahead of the Tacoma and into
the strike zone. I mean, we were really late getting out there, and STILL
almost got nailed.
It is like being completely paranoid, then realizing they really are
out to
get you. I was actually planning for that lady to do exactly what she did,
but not really expecting it to happen.
Anyway I don't have much to say except maybe that I am calling my
friend to
see if he will sell me the g55 back. If 3500 lb is good, 5500 is better.
When you see how much casual disregard for human life is all around
you, it
is easy to get a bit jaded.
On Jun 4, 2017 5:00 PM, "Peter Frederick via Mercedes" <
mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote:
This is why I drive them. Same sort of thing happened to me, guy in a work
van ran a traffic light and hit me in the driver's door. Battered but
alive, car was a mess.
Peter
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Peter Frederick via Mercedes <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>
June 4, 2017 at 7:00 PM
This is why I drive them. Same sort of thing happened to me, guy in a
work van ran a traffic light and hit me in the driver's door. Battered
but alive, car was a mess.
Peter
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Curley McLain <mailto:126die...@gmail.com>
June 4, 2017 at 4:02 PM
Wow! I am glad he is mostly ok. It is hard to loose a car and have
to deal with an ins co. But, it sounds like the timing could have
been a lot worse.
Dan Penoff via Mercedes <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>
June 4, 2017 at 3:22 PM
Youngest son was hit today by a driver that lost control of their
truck on a wet street and overcorrected, slamming into the front left
corner of his S420. Both fenders, hood, even trim on A pillars was
displaced. Crumple zones were clearly defined by the way the car
absorbed the hit. Based on what he described, the seat belt squib
fired but the air bag did not deploy. He was stationary, the other
driver hit him.
Called the EMTs and had him checked out - he's OK but will be seeing a
doctor tomorrow. He was definitely freaking out and starting to go
into shock, or at least having major anxiety right after, so I
insisted that the EMTs come. They checked him out and he's fine. I'm
sure he's going to be feeling it tomorrow.
I'm guessing the car will probably be totaled, so that means I need to
start putting together comps to do battle with the insurance company.
This could be a blessing in disguise, as the boy is off for a three
month field study in a couple of weeks, which means I'll have plenty
of time to find him a nice replacement car with the settlement. An
opportunity for more dieselfication....
Pictures to follow as soon as I figure out where to put them.
-D
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