People are capable of doing some supremely stupid things in cars. We’ve seen the warnings from informational videos over the decades, and our personal blunders and experiences have demonstrated this point, too. We can, of course, be attentive behind the wheel, but that doesn’t account for the others who aren’t while on the road. It’s partly why dash cams and their resulting videos have gained so much traction in recent years. While someone’s dumb decision may end up in disaster, others might end in close calls — moments where destruction was inches away.
Close calls happen more often than you might expect, especially when we live in an era where vehicles are equipped with every warning along with literal bells and whistles to tell drivers they might hit something. This week, we don’t want to know about the little near-misses — we want to know about the big ones that haunt you. Tell us about the misses that had they been hits, would’ve made for calamity.
A disastrous five minutes in New York
Years ago, while in the city for the New York International Auto Show, I was lucky enough to be driving a well-equipped 2021 Maserati Levante GTS. I had taken it on a scenic drive along the Belt Parkway to Amityville, and on my return to Brooklyn, I hit a bit of traffic. About 10 minutes into my drive, in a 35 mph residential zone, an Audi Q5 came speeding up behind me. I reactively slowed down to let it fly past.
I watched as this Q5 blazed through a red light and hit another car, a fairly new Subaru, before the Q5 went spinning into the other side of the intersection. That was near miss number one. Two people got out of the smashed Q5 and bolted. Instinctively, I wanted to stop and help, but I was in a part of New York I was unfamiliar with in a six-figure vehicle that wasn’t mine. Instead, I opted to get around the scene.
Seconds later, a Ford Taurus came up on my bumper, then quickly maneuvered ahead to cut me off before making a turn into a parking lot where it then stopped, and a cop hopped out and proceeded to stop a kid who had run from the crash scene. The Taurus was never put in park, though, and it started rolling towards the Maserati. I panicked, trying to figure out how to reverse it with its weird shifter.
The cop saw what was happening and was able to catch the car about an inch away from the Maserati. Near miss number two. Meanwhile, another cop had arrested the kid. After a deep breath and a phone call to my husband, still quite shaken, I made my way back to Brooklyn.
It might not have been the greatest near-miss, but the feelings I had nearly five years ago remain strong to this day. With that chaos in mind, what was your most unforgettable close call? Tell us all about it and why it holds critical space in your memory bank in the comments below.
