Rajah
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 17, 1999
- Messages
- 9,633
DH just got home from work about 30 minutes ago, and after a few minutes, asked me when I was going in to work tomorrow and if I wanted to work later -- with this "sheepish-I'm-going-to-be-in-trouble" look.
I ask why.
He said he needed me to escort him to the car shop tomorrow and to go look at his car.
So I go out and look.
His entire driver-side mirror is gone, there a very noticable dent in the corner of the door, scuffs on the part of the car next to the front of the door but isn't part of the door (fender?), and he pointed out that his left front tire rim is dented.
So I ask what hit him.
A tree.
His story was he was accellerating through an intersection that's been having construction, had to make a sharp turn, hydroplaned, went into a spin, and hit the tree.
Thankfully (and this is where I'm thankful), he wasn't hurt beyond a couple of bruises, and his co-worker was two cars behind him so saw what happened and escorted him home to make sure he was okay and made it okay.
Because of the hydroplaning-spin part, and because this is DH's new car that is less than a year old, I'm feeling sorry for him or sympathetic or whatever the proper term is (I'm a little fuzzle-headed so someone please correct the term if I'm not using it right?
)
But, I'm also angry because I'm 95% certain that if DH had been driving *correctly* through the intersection, he wouldn't have skidded so badly. Certainly not enough to jump up onto a curb and hit a tree. I believe he was driving just the way that I was afraid he would if he got a Camero instead of a normal car.
You see, I've seen how those roads are torn up. It's a split road with normally two lanes going one direction and two going the other. But at the intersection in question, the direction he was coming from had two lanes (the two going his direction) entirely shut off for construction, and the two lanes going the other direction narrowed to one so that the traffic going his direction can get past the construction. But at this intersection, the construction on the usual side of the road was over so they were routing everyone back into their correct lanes.
He says he was stopped at the light, it changed, he accellerated through the curve, lost traction (so much for the traction control), started to spin, turned the wheel incorrectly (to correct instead of into the spin like you're supposed to), jumped the curb, and hit the tree.
Oh, did I mention it's been relatively cold today (it's 47 out there right now) and all evening it's been sprinkling a very light and cold rain?
Now I ask you... if properly accelerating through an s-curve in construction from a stop, is it likely that you would go into a spin and have enough momentum to jump a curb and hit a tree hard enough to break your mirror off, but not hard enough to break your window? Or am I correct in assuming that, like he usually does, he was hot-rodding it through the intersection and that's how he lost control? I've been with him twice when he thought it was "neat" to hot-rod from the stop and make the car fish-tail just to get a reaction out of me.
So... I'm asking the impartial DIS. Is he possibly telling the truth when he says he was doing a normal, safe acceleration and being careful because of the rain, but lost control *anyway*? Or is he lying to me for the second time where his car is concerned?
(Back in May, his passenger door got dented. He claimed it was because a car hit it in the parking lot. My dad and I couldn't figure out how a car could produce that kind of dent while leaving that kind of residue, so my dad went investigating and found that there was red paint on the entry edge of his old garage at the apartment where he more likely tried to enter the garage and didn't know the dimensions of his car and so caused his own dent but was too ashamed to admit to me. He never has fessed up to that one to me, though he did acknowledge that my dad was right when my dad confronted him)
I'm really beginning to feel that if this keeps up, that car's going to be traded in on one he's less likely to drive dangerously.
But, if I'm incorrectly assuming because of how he's hot-rodded when I've been with him... if it is possible that going from a stop at a normal, safe acceleration through a light, he could have gathered enough momentum to jump the curb and break off his mirror, then I owe him a huge apology for the assumptions I made and my reactions.
I ask why.
He said he needed me to escort him to the car shop tomorrow and to go look at his car.
So I go out and look.
His entire driver-side mirror is gone, there a very noticable dent in the corner of the door, scuffs on the part of the car next to the front of the door but isn't part of the door (fender?), and he pointed out that his left front tire rim is dented.
So I ask what hit him.
A tree.
His story was he was accellerating through an intersection that's been having construction, had to make a sharp turn, hydroplaned, went into a spin, and hit the tree.
Thankfully (and this is where I'm thankful), he wasn't hurt beyond a couple of bruises, and his co-worker was two cars behind him so saw what happened and escorted him home to make sure he was okay and made it okay.
Because of the hydroplaning-spin part, and because this is DH's new car that is less than a year old, I'm feeling sorry for him or sympathetic or whatever the proper term is (I'm a little fuzzle-headed so someone please correct the term if I'm not using it right?
)But, I'm also angry because I'm 95% certain that if DH had been driving *correctly* through the intersection, he wouldn't have skidded so badly. Certainly not enough to jump up onto a curb and hit a tree. I believe he was driving just the way that I was afraid he would if he got a Camero instead of a normal car.
You see, I've seen how those roads are torn up. It's a split road with normally two lanes going one direction and two going the other. But at the intersection in question, the direction he was coming from had two lanes (the two going his direction) entirely shut off for construction, and the two lanes going the other direction narrowed to one so that the traffic going his direction can get past the construction. But at this intersection, the construction on the usual side of the road was over so they were routing everyone back into their correct lanes.
He says he was stopped at the light, it changed, he accellerated through the curve, lost traction (so much for the traction control), started to spin, turned the wheel incorrectly (to correct instead of into the spin like you're supposed to), jumped the curb, and hit the tree.
Oh, did I mention it's been relatively cold today (it's 47 out there right now) and all evening it's been sprinkling a very light and cold rain?
Now I ask you... if properly accelerating through an s-curve in construction from a stop, is it likely that you would go into a spin and have enough momentum to jump a curb and hit a tree hard enough to break your mirror off, but not hard enough to break your window? Or am I correct in assuming that, like he usually does, he was hot-rodding it through the intersection and that's how he lost control? I've been with him twice when he thought it was "neat" to hot-rod from the stop and make the car fish-tail just to get a reaction out of me.
So... I'm asking the impartial DIS. Is he possibly telling the truth when he says he was doing a normal, safe acceleration and being careful because of the rain, but lost control *anyway*? Or is he lying to me for the second time where his car is concerned?
(Back in May, his passenger door got dented. He claimed it was because a car hit it in the parking lot. My dad and I couldn't figure out how a car could produce that kind of dent while leaving that kind of residue, so my dad went investigating and found that there was red paint on the entry edge of his old garage at the apartment where he more likely tried to enter the garage and didn't know the dimensions of his car and so caused his own dent but was too ashamed to admit to me. He never has fessed up to that one to me, though he did acknowledge that my dad was right when my dad confronted him)
I'm really beginning to feel that if this keeps up, that car's going to be traded in on one he's less likely to drive dangerously.
But, if I'm incorrectly assuming because of how he's hot-rodded when I've been with him... if it is possible that going from a stop at a normal, safe acceleration through a light, he could have gathered enough momentum to jump the curb and break off his mirror, then I owe him a huge apology for the assumptions I made and my reactions.
I hate the traffic in Houston, and knowing he's driving possibly unsafely scares me to death. 
