Humans are fun, quirky creatures filled to the brim with eccentricities. Even “normal” folks, which I’m sure don’t work here, have something about them that makes them different. It’s what makes the human condition so exciting! Perhaps not as fun is fear. Some people can’t be in the same room as a spider while others may desire to keep a long distance from a tiny space. I get it. What about fears related to cars and driving? What’s something you try to avoid at all costs?
I like to think of myself as a bit of a daredevil. I’m almost equally fascinated with the idea of jumping out of a perfectly good plane as I am with being the person to fly it. I never rode a snowmobile before January, yet I wasn’t even 5 minutes into my first time on a Ski-Doo when I had the throttle pinned and the speedometer climbing. It was the same deal just last weekend when BRP tossed me the key to a 325 HP Sea-Doo. I’ve never been on a PWC before, but you bet I was chuckling like a Bond villain as I skipped across chop at grand speeds. I had never been on a paved track before Harley-Davidson asked me to send a bagger around corners at speed.
Yet, even I have driving fears. There’s one thing in particular that I do not want to leave to chance and that’s a crash involving a body of water. Somewhere around 400 people drown each year after a crash that eventually sees their vehicles getting submerged in water. A paper published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that most water-based fatalities happen after a vehicle rolls over into water. Another large chunk is when a vehicle crashes into another vehicle before entering water.
The subject of escaping from a sinking vehicle has been one I’ve been obsessed with since I was a kid. As my bio says, I love water, so it’s probably expected that I’d apply the same obsession to vehicles. In the past, I spoke with a local fire department about what to do should one find oneself in a submerging car, and their recommendation was to remove your seatbelt and open all windows immediately upon entering water. The most important thing to act quickly, which might be difficult if you’re disoriented or upside down. Another reason to be quick: water may foul power-window electronics. It sounds like an expert interviewed by NPR agrees.
If you cannot open a window or a door, there are glass breaker tools designed to slash your seatbelt and break a window to enable a quick escape. Some may recommend removing a headrest and slamming its posts into a window, but it may not do the job. It also should be noted that glass-breaker tools do not work on today’s fancy cars with laminated side glass. One of these days I’m going to test a bunch of these tools in a junkyard …
In a very worst-case scenario, I’ve been told it’s possible to wait for the vehicle to fill up before exiting. I’m sure so many of you have seen the famous Mythbusters segment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YaMEW30bv4
Of course, waiting for the car to fill should always be the last resort after all other options have been exhausted. My wife has a fear of water and cannot swim. So, a crash involving water becomes that much more difficult.
That’s my driving fear. The idea of saving myself, my wife, and maybe any onboard pets sounds daunting, but I’m prepared for it.
What about you? What is your driving fear?
Topshot: screen grab, youtube.com/@discovery
Getting T-boned by a distracted driver running a red light would have to top my list. Maybe not as intrinsically scary as getting trapped underwater, but it’s a much more likely occurrence so it generally freaks me out a bit more.
My wife has a lot of truck anxiety on the road. It’s founded, because she had a childhood friend who was killed on the highway when a truck merged into the lane that her vehicle was in (passing lane). When I’m driving with her on the highway, I have to plan passing situations involving trucks – wait until the passing lane is completely clear of traffic and then pass without hesitation (never “hanging out” in the passing lane next to a truck). I’m going on a trip with her tomorrow, and this will (as always) be the order of the day.
For me, it’s a little less severe…like some others, I have a fear of breaking down in a limited access area (long bridge span, tunnel, construction zone). It’s more about public shaming/embarassment than life/death. A few years back, it seemed like it was going to happen. I was crossing the Walt Witman bridge from Philly to South Jersey in the pre-dawn hours with my son in our old ass Freestar van when I started to notice that I was having to apply more throttle than normal to keep speed. Shortly after, I noticed an uneven feel coming from the engine…all gauges appeared normal, had no warning lights, but as the foot kept getting closer to the floor just to keep it at 55, it was obvious something was really wrong. I made it over the bridge, and shortly thereafter I got a CEL (steady, not flashing). Quickly going through the possibilities in my head, and seeing normal temp and no oil pressure indicator, I decided to keep going – south Jersey is pretty flat, so I knew that I wasn’t going to have to go over any more hills. We got to where we were going, and made it home OK on the return trip, but she acted up a few more times along the way. Eventually, the problem was identified as a fuel pressure regulator, but I can vividly remember how I felt on that bridge both on the way down, and especially on the way back, as traffic was significantly greater…it was one of those white knuckle “confront your fear” moments while simultaneously trying to remain calm on the outside so I didn’t freak my son out.
About 10 years ago, after a health issue that hospitalized me, I developed an irrational fear of driving over high bridges. This never used to bother me when I was younger. I’ve even seen a therapist for this (the cure seems to be, “get out and drive over more bridges!”). I’m managing, but even so I sometimes find myself unconsciously plotting a route that avoids tall bridges. That’s when I grit my teeth and make myself do it.
A highway turned parking lot on a super hot day in a crappy car with broken A/C, empty gas tank, running on fumes about to become part-of-the- problem lane blocking boat anchor at any minute and not a bathroom in sight.
And I’m HANGRY!!
The thing that scares me most, is something failing on my vehicle, and causing injury to someone else. It’s especially concerning, because I do a lot of trailering, and work on my own cars. Even under the best circumstances, ‘stuff happens’, and it does genuinely frighten me that, if something goes wrong, it’s just as likely to have a huge impact on someone else’s life as it is mine. That’s kind of replaced most of the regular ‘fears’ that I used to have.
My worst fear is falling off a cliff so any road with a steep drop-off and no guard rail is scary, as are narrow bench cut trails. I’m not so much afraid of heights as afraid of falling off.
This story, which is an urban legend, but it stuck with me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/bhbyx/comment/c0mt4ag/
Y’know those videos from Australia of giant spiders hiding behind the sun visor and things like that? Yeah, pure nightmare fuel. Even tiny spiders are terrifying if I’m stick in a car with them. That and ending up under a semi.
Being behind an 18-wheeler on a motorcycle when a blowout occurs. It happened to me years ago. One chunk went to my right, one went to my left, and a small chunk skipped off of my helmet. Scared the devil out of me. Sticks with me to this day.
My grandma in law took a retread to the dome while on a bike many years ago, luckily while wearing a helmet. Apparently she’s never quite been the same since, but I never knew her before the accident. Still absolutely terrifying though.
I feel for her. I knew how blind, stupid lucky I was.
When it happens to me, I’m always amazed at the force with which a tiny rock or piece of gravel can hit a helmet; I can’t imagine the violence of a big hunk of rubber.
Through the years the thing I’ve had the most trouble with is black ice, and anymore I get nervous just thinking about it. I remember driving down from the mountains where we had been skiing to meet with a friend in town. It had been snowing up high and raining in town, and where those two met was on a left hand curve without a guardrail. We slowly entered the curve and began a slo-mo 4 wheel drift toward doom. I like to think it was my driving that saved us, but it was physics. We were going realllly slow.
My next brush was again driving home from skiing where it had been a warm 35ish degree snowstorm. After the snow stopped the wind whipped up blowing rivers of snow across the road. Cars ahead turned the snow into wet ice and people were just sliding laterally from the crown of the road to the shoulder. That day we’d seen 3 cars on their roofs and the results of a head-on collision. Years since I’ve seen these rivers of blowing snow sometimes in unexpected places. Wide open dry road, you crest a hill at 65+mph and suddenly the other side of the hill is death ice
I’ve always been scared of log trucks. I remember watching the news with my aunt when I was like four years old and there was a report on a log truck that overturned and the logs crushed several cars, killing a few people. It made a deep impression on me and I just ever since haven’t liked being near them.
Biggest driving fear for me has always been crashing into large road debris, be it a ladder or wheelbarrow that fell off of someone’s poorly loaded trailer, or a loose wheel & tire left in the middle of the road.
My fear of harming, or worse, a pedestrian of any age overrides any fear I have of accidents involving my four wheeled vehicle.
(This is because I’ve been extremely fortunate and never had any serious collisions in fifty years of driving. Completely understand the fears people have of any number of not-all-that-unlikely smashups.)
Realistically It’s getting in a bad crash where when they free me my innards will fall out and die, and while I’m pinned my coffin nails and lighter are nowhere to be found.
I don’t smoke often, but I’ve been caught in situations where I could really use a smoke, so I keep a sealed pack of Cigs in a protective case and a couple lighters on me just in case it ends up being one of those days.
This is why you need a Convertible.
Nobody ever drowned because they couldn’t escape their car with the top down.
Just ask Doris Day (Move Over Darling – the Crown Imperial in a car wash scene), James Garner (Thrill Of It All – the Impala into a Pool scene) and Phil Silvers (It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – the Ford unsuccessfully fjording the river scene)
My biggest fear: Being run over by a tailgating brodozer or Soccer Mom SUV
Suddenly having to poop really, really bad and being ca 100+ miles from the next available toilet
This is why I carry a roll of toilet paper in the trunk. Never needed it, but I have a feeling if I ever do, I’ll be soo glad it’s there.
if you have it, you’ll never need to use it, if you don’t, watch out.
Bees. Always bees.
Cresting a hill only to find something sideways in my path of travel.
That this has happened multiple times has not made the fear dissipate.
I’m sure it’s already been said, but you need to get your wife swimming lessons, Mercedes. The ability to swim is a basic human need, IMO. Like you, my biggest fear is ending up in a body of water inside a car.
She plans on learning how to swim and ride a motorcycle this summer! But yeah, I agree. Swimming is important, and not just for fun. 🙂
And consider at least yearly re-lessons in addition to practice in safe controlled conditions. Fearful learning doesn’t take easily.
And I’m sure you would, but…
Find a place and an instructor (maybe that’s you?) that is calm, reassuring, and pushes a little through her fear… but not too fast.
I know an adult that wanted to learn to swim, was afraid of water, and their first attempt was an instructor that really didn’t understand fear, “Come on, you’ll be fine! Just let go…” Set them back a few years before they had courage to try again.
Little kids start by just learning to put their face in the water, then just learning to float. Step by step is good. Being able to float calmly face up or face down (!) are great goals. “Swimming” comes after that.
In my old age I have developed a healthy case of acrophobia. So a winding, mountain road, featuring thousand-foot drops off a cliff with no guardrails, scare the living shit out of me.
Oops, flat tire, off the cliff we go. Yikes!
I can’t wait till Tweels make this a thing of the past.
That’s not gonna do it. Armco is the answer.
Same. Fuckkkkkk that.
Getting into a high speed head-on collision with a wrong-way driver piloting a tall SUV after first blinding me with their ultra bright headlights.
Hailstorms! Every spring is marked by obsessive weather checking and every spring someone I know get major hail damage.
Living near-ish Pittsburgh and frequenting the city, with its many bridges and crumbling infrastructure, its getting caught in a bridge collapse.
If my dreams are any indication, it’s driving in a spirited manner on a lovely road on a lovely day with perfect weather, then missing a turn and sailing off a cliff into the deepest canyon on the planet, counting the seconds of free fall as the trees and rocks get ever closer.
This is on my list of “retirement” options.
But it looks fun in Calvin and Hobbes?
Getting rear ended while driving my 1992 Accord station wagon. The wagon specific rear panels and glass have got to be completely unobtainium nowadays.