Near Head On Collision

Yesterday, on Alabama 77 about 4 miles North of I-20, as we were traveling home from a week long trip, My wife and I encountered something I have never had happen and we were VERY lucky.

It was sunny and about 78deg, clear, the roads were dry. I was driving at about 60 mph on a relatively straight section of this highway. No one was in the lane in front of me nor was anyone behind me. About 1/2 mile ahead in the on-coming lane a single vehicle approached at probably at least 55mph. It appeared to be a minivan.

As the vehicle approached closer it began to wonder towards the center line. We have all encountered this expecting the driver to correct. Well this time the driver continued to wander into my lane. Rather than slow I continued hoping for the correction. As the car got to within 50 yards or so, I had already moved halfway over in my lane to the right and as you all know, making a large final rapid evasive maneuvers in a TC is not possible, especially at this speed. I edged further and made the final quick push to the right causing the big TC to roll a bit and watched first out my window and then through rear view mirrors as the car continued past me perhaps clearing the rear of my TC by 6 inches.

I watched in the rear view mirror and saw that the vehicle DID NOT correct it's trajectory until it had completely crossed my lane and hit the white line and presumably the rough shoulder. It was clear they never saw what was coming and never even looked up as they passed me !

I have been thinking a bit about this:

1. If someone had been behind me they might have had the collision with no time to respond. My TC would have obscured their ability to respond. Direct head on collision.

2. If I had slowed down I would not have had enough room to "dodge the bullet" since they clearly did not change course, I might have had the head on unless I veered into the left rather than right lane to escape collision.

3. If I had honked or if my wife had been paying attention, there might have been more of a panic response than the one offered.

4. Had I slowed down, I might have had to run my entire vehicle in the right ditch to avoid collision, also a very unpleasant option at 60 mph.

I have a new appreciation of evolving new technology to warn distracted drivers. This one must have been texting..and it is unclear if they ever saw how close they came to probable death.

Truck Campers

profdant139
Explorer II
Jul 03, 2015
Stuff happens so fast -- this is exactly why I never look down, even to fool with the radio, while I am driving. I have never talked on the phone while driving. And let me tell you, as a Southern Calif freeway driver, maybe a third of everyone on the road at any time is glancing down at their phones. Terrifying. It seems like half the population is of below average intelligence. ;)
jfkmk
Explorer
Jul 02, 2015
It's not just texting, some people are just too stupid to drive. Texting while driving is just a symptom of stupidity.

I was traveling on a three lane highway pulling my trailer. There was a minor accident on the right shoulder, and the right lane was closed off to help protect the emergency response folks. We were still moving slowly, but I had to get to the middle lane. Looking in my mirror, it was clear for me to move to the left, but there was a car coming up. I moved left and began to accelerate, as did the car in front of me. When the car in front of me got to the accident site, he STOPPED so he could look at the accident. Fortunately, I was able to swerve into the fast lane(there was no one there) and avoid an accident. I probably could have stopped also, but I might have tapped him, or the car behind me might have rear-ended me.

Ron White -"you can't fix stupid"
wizwor
Explorer
Jul 02, 2015
The driver was almost certainly texting. You should have leaned on your horn as soon as they crossed the dividing line. Even if the driver was just being careless and got annoyed at your reaction, he most likely would have corrected. Even as you were leaning on the horn, you should have been slowing to a stop. I would also have hit the hazard lights to alert any driver in the rear. You are very lucky, but this isn't like being struck by lightning. It WILL happen again and again until every texter has a very close call.
pa_traveler
Explorer
Jun 30, 2015
Glad you snuck by. I had a maniac come out of nowhere on 95 .I was passing slow driver about 50 mph,as far back as you could see nobody I passed at around 60mph.This drug crazed nut must of been doing well over 100mph .He got within a inch of my boat that I was hauling. I got over quickly,told wife to call 911 after watching him swerve in and out of traffc ,almost losing it tires smoking.I said we will see him crashed up the road. Sure enough 3 miles ahead started seeing parts on road ,he crashed up under tractor trailer passenger side. He clipped a couple cars ,these guys were holdng him in as he was trying to run pnned door aganst him. He was driving like he was trying to commit suicide,very scary day.
delosholly
Explorer
Jun 29, 2015
Impossible!! No Way!! Fake Story!!

There is no way that someone in ALABAMA could drive that badly. Why everyone I talk with tells me they are all great drivers. The other car must have been from out of state, perhaps Mississippi or Tennessee (We like to blame everything on Mississippi or Tennessee).

No honestly, I have to avoid the texters a lot on my way into and home from work. They slowly start drifting over the lines all the time. And if someone ahead of me drifts or suddenly becomes erratic in their speed, I can usually see them using their cell phones.

Glad that you did not get hit. We all must be defensive drivers.
silversand
Explorer
Jun 29, 2015
Glad your actions kept you out of harms way!!

Others:

These events require situational response; so every collision any particular driver can see "unfolding" in front of them will require very specific response. I think that Mr Phelps judged this one correctly.

I know someone personally (a truck camper that once frequented this Forum) who had a VERY similar situation; however, they had stopped completely, and were sandwiched by slow traffic in front. The "car" that merged into their lane crashed head on into their F250; remarkably, everyone survived. This one could have turned out for the worse if it weren't for their (limited by situation) evasive action (situational).

On edit: while driving to Florida this past winter, "we" were shocked by the quantity of drivers who talk on hand-held cell phones on I95. Additionally, how many hold theur cell phones near the steering wheel, and text. Virtually every State we drove through had many, many offenders. Are there no laws against this in the US? Locally here in Quebec, I have only seen appx 3 drivers doing this over the past perhaps 5 or 6 years. In the US, we counted in the 6 or 7 dozen over a period of 2.4 days on the I95 through appx 9 States.

For alert and experienced drivers (like me/us), it is very easy to spot drivers who fiddle with their cell phones while underway.
work2fish
Explorer
Jun 29, 2015
As drivers of vehicles that are high enough to peer into passing cars, I'm sure we have all seen the extent of the texting going on on our highways. I had a buddy who was stopped at a traffic light on his motorcycle, was hit from behind by a texting driver, and messed up pretty bad.

So there are more reasons than there have ever been to be an aware and defensive driver. I also think option two is the best course of action because of Newton's Second Law: Force = Mass * Acceleration!

Glad you averted a potential disaster. I imagine that you were a little shaky on the highway after that one.
kohldad
Explorer III
Jun 29, 2015
Option 2 - I would rather slow down and have a head on collision while almost stopped than having a combined speed of over 100 mph - I've seen it and no one wins.

Option 3 - if you had honked, the offender might of had a more panic response and wrecked their vehicle, but at least the offender would have been the only one in the accident. The horn would also warn a person behind you of a potential problem. Always be ready on the horn and practice so it becomes an instinct. After all, that is the purpose of the horn to warn other drivers in situations just as you described.

You were very lucky and things played out best for all. Only in hindsight do your realize that your actions this time were the lucky ones, but may not be the best the next time.
abnengr
Explorer
Jun 29, 2015
Glad you dodged the bullet/mini van. At least it wasn't one of the log trucks that seem to roam the roads between I-20 and Gadsden all the time. Hope you were able to clean the brown spots off the leather seat cover!
gbopp
Explorer
Jun 29, 2015
We had a very similar experience with a minivan while traveling in our Southwind.
The minivan crossed the road in front of us and hit a utility pole.
It came very close to hitting us.
There was traffic behind me and behind the minivan, we really had no where to go.
The driver, I later learned, suffered a medical emergency while driving. He survived the emergency and crash.
It is very scary. I'm glad you, your wife and rig were not injured or damaged.
I'm considering a dash cam. Just in case.