Dangerous intersection

I was in a pretty nasty car wreck when I was 17.

At the time, I thought I was a pretty good driver. And, to be honest, I was.

I had only had my license for about 6 months, but I had been driving various vehicles since I was 5. This particular day, I had stayed after school for Track Team practice. After it was all done, I went to my car, and headed home.

Instead of taking my usual route home, I decided to explore a little. I had a cassette tape of Metallica blaring on my radio, and it was a very nice spring day. I pulled up to the intersection of Ahtanum Road and Marks road. it was about 2 miles from my home. The part of the road I was on, was a gravel back-road, that didn't get used a lot, and had a pretty steep grade downward.

Ahtanum Road sloped down hill from right to left. Off to the right, was a blind corner about 150 yards away from me. To my left, it stretched on for at least a quarter mile. Marks road, in front of me, gently sloped downward for the next mile. Ahtanum Road didn't have a stop sign, but Marks Road did. So, I stopped.

When I pulled up to the intersection, I did as I was trained. I looked both ways. Twice. Coming from my left, I noticed my neighbor pulling up to the intersection. They slowed down, and waved to me. Part of me must have thought that they were being really nice and waving me through, because I started through the intersection.

Three quarters of the way through the intersection, I glanced to my right.

The grill and bumper of a Ford Aerostar Minivan was about 4 feet from my door.

Everything went into slow motion.

I turned toward the steering wheel, and screamed. That scream was cut off by my car getting hit at 65 miles per hour by the minivan. Everything went black.

When I came to, Metallica was still playing, and I couldn't breathe. So, I unbuckled my seat belt as quickly as I could manage, and flopped onto the pavement, trying to get some air. My neighbor came over and checked on me. She thought I had been thrown from the car.

So, here's what happened from an objective viewpoint.

My neighbor had slowed down because she was turning onto the same road that I was on, and was waiting for the minivan to pass her, before she turned left. The minivan was speeding down the hill, and didn't see me until I was almost through the intersection. When we collided, we traveled about 50 feet. We ended up about 8 feet from a drop off to a field 20 feet below. My passenger seat was stuck underneath my seat, and my car was completely totaled. I had slammed into the steering wheel somehow, and that's why I couldn't breathe.

The woman driving the van worked at my High School. She was an assistant teacher for the Special Ed class, and was a very nice lady. She also had her 8 year old son in the van with her. He was not injured at all. In fact, he was more worried about his Game Boy than he was about anything else.

I spoke to the Sheriff, filled out some forms, got in my dad's car, and went home. They towed the wreck behind us, and dropped it off in our field. I used to think that I was going to tear that car apart someday, just for fun. I never got around to it, though.

That winter, I was coming up the opposite way on Marks Road, and there was snow on the ground. I thought I was driving carefully. I didn't speed. If I had to slow down, I pumped the brakes. I didn't over-correct.

Unfortunately, there was ice underneath the snow, and I couldn't stop. I looked to my left, and saw a car going way too fast from around that blind corner. The first thing I thought was, "Great. Now I get it from the other side. This is going to kill me."

I knew that I wouldn't have enough time to stop without getting hit. So, I did the only thing I could think of.

I stepped on the gas.

I managed to get up enough speed to pass in front of the other car, and not get hit.

They must have missed me by less than 3 feet.

After that, I never drove around that intersection again. I always took other routes. It was safer.