This isn’t really a new post, but thanks to the suggestion of a friend (which confirmed a nagging thought of mine), I decided to make this portion of a previous post its own. I figure, people can always benefit from personal accounts of seeing idiots driving.
Drive safe out there.
As I was driving last night last Thursday night on the 110N, I saw an old BMW 5-series swerve in between two cars in the other two lanes on my right, then overcorrect as the freeway wound to the left. He careened out of control into the side barricade–no more than 100 feet in front of me. It really was in slow motion, and I saw the whole thing. He was driving like a maniac, and that was literally all I saw, since he came out of nowhere in the middle lane.
Are you familiar with Formula D? This was nothing like that, because the drifting was 100% unintentional.
The cars I was in the company with were all driving a steady pace and he was trying to pass us as the freeway wound to the left. It was late at night so there weren’t many cars, which I think was what saved us.
And then we saw the engine bay burst into flames. No one got out, and I saw alloy wheels off their axle with no rubber on them. A cop car was just behind us in traffic, incidentally. We backed it up to the nearest exit, which was Avenue 60.
I cannot stress enough to everyone to be careful on the 110. Just because you are driving responsibly on the oldest, narrowest freeway in Los Angeles with no shoulder doesn’t mean the next guy who’s passing you on the next wind is. I don’t know if I’ve seen another freeway with such short exits and entrances anywhere, either. Don’t drive like an idiot.
Okay, now have a great weekend. Be safe.
Love,
*e
7 Comments
indeed. especially during time of ANY rain, I’d vote on avoiding the 110 if at all possible. I’ve seen too many horrible wrecks and too many ambulances…
the 110 scares the pee out of me! i had a friend who lived off of one of those exit ramps that are 5mph. i hated going to his house! so i would make him come to safe old orange county if he wanted to hang out with me
glad nothing happened to you!
add the commute to and in riverside to your list–60 fwy. i see at least one accident every day on the way to or back from campus. i tell this to my housemate that, honestly, one day we are going to get involved in a traffic accident.
sidenote: on my way up to san fran this previous weekend i just could not believe the way ppl drove on the 5 fwy.
oops, i hit “submit” by accident before i finished:
they would speed; merge recklessly and needlessly, and all for what ends? when there was traffic i would end up being behind them a few minutes later. i noted that sport edition of cars were the real perpetrators. namely this one cl55 that drove like hell–enough so to put at least a 10minute gap between us–and ended up being behind me due to what i assumed was because of a pit stop for gas… *rolls eyes*.
thanks e!
the 110 IS scary past downtown LA!
Dude, I hate that stretch of freeway. I was actually riding shotgun in my friends car, when we came to a stop sign, stopped, then got rear-ended by an older 5 series. The the mofo took off onto the on ramp, lost control, swerved around and skidded a bit, then regained control. We took off after them, and luckily, while this asswipe was losing control of his car, it gave me enough time to memorize his license plate number. But the asshole turned off his lights, then swerved through traffic, and we lost him around the corner. This was about 1:30AM. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw the same BMW as the one that hit us.