The difference a “split second” makes. 27 Dec 2013
We spent Christmas in Dallas with our older son and his family and were on our way home.
About 1200 noon we were in my Wife's 09 Malibu on Highway 75 northbound, leaving Denison, Tx. Traffic was moderate, moving at highway speed on a bright December day. No rain, no snow, no ice, temperature in the mid 50s.
We were following a big truck, probably a hundred feet back, when the unexpected, but always possible, happened. The truck moved over a little to miss debris on the road, just not quite enough. One of his tires just caught the edge enough to send it spinning down the road. To my glimpse it looked like one of the ratchets on semi trailers that are used to tighten straps that hold the loads, a u-shaped piece of steel with other parts that weights several pounds and has lots of edges and corners. That piece of steel came spinning back, bounced up at a diagonal to the car. Noise told us it obviously hit but we could see no damage so we continued down the road. A car well behind us in the other lane slowed way down and I lost sight of it.
When we stopped in Durant, OK we found that the debris hit the hood hard enough to put a substantial dent/scrape in the hood 18 inches long, bounced and hit the windshield post crushing it then bounced into the other lane. It did not break the windshield.
Consider the difference a “split second” could make.
A split second later and it may have missed the car completely.
A split second earlier it could have hit the hood sixteen inches farther over and it would have come through the windshield directly in front of my face and I would not be here telling the story.
In that split second I did not have enough time to raise my arms to shield my face on a bright sunny day in Texas.
Lessons learned:
You never know when something potentially lethal may happen too quick to do anything about it.
Tell your family you love them.
Verle
We spent Christmas in Dallas with our older son and his family and were on our way home.
About 1200 noon we were in my Wife's 09 Malibu on Highway 75 northbound, leaving Denison, Tx. Traffic was moderate, moving at highway speed on a bright December day. No rain, no snow, no ice, temperature in the mid 50s.
We were following a big truck, probably a hundred feet back, when the unexpected, but always possible, happened. The truck moved over a little to miss debris on the road, just not quite enough. One of his tires just caught the edge enough to send it spinning down the road. To my glimpse it looked like one of the ratchets on semi trailers that are used to tighten straps that hold the loads, a u-shaped piece of steel with other parts that weights several pounds and has lots of edges and corners. That piece of steel came spinning back, bounced up at a diagonal to the car. Noise told us it obviously hit but we could see no damage so we continued down the road. A car well behind us in the other lane slowed way down and I lost sight of it.
When we stopped in Durant, OK we found that the debris hit the hood hard enough to put a substantial dent/scrape in the hood 18 inches long, bounced and hit the windshield post crushing it then bounced into the other lane. It did not break the windshield.
Consider the difference a “split second” could make.
A split second later and it may have missed the car completely.
A split second earlier it could have hit the hood sixteen inches farther over and it would have come through the windshield directly in front of my face and I would not be here telling the story.
In that split second I did not have enough time to raise my arms to shield my face on a bright sunny day in Texas.
Lessons learned:
You never know when something potentially lethal may happen too quick to do anything about it.
Tell your family you love them.
Verle
