Been awhile since I've posted back when it was a4.org. Anyway, I wanted to share an event I had last Saturday night. My wife and I met for dinner and then we were heading home after we ate. This is a drive I've made a thousand times, north on 280 in the Bay Area. It was raining quite heavily and in the distance I could see the brake lights of what was certainly snarled traffic from an existing accident and I started slowing down.

I was in the fast lane while I was slowing down and checked my mirrors and such as I commonly do and noticed all was well... I usually get a little more attentive when traffic slows suddenly in unfavorable conditions.

The next couple of seconds are pretty hard to explain without detail, but bare in mind this happened in a few quick seconds.

When I came to a stop behind the PGE utility truck that was travelling in front of me, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw another large utility van that either switched lanes thinking the fast lane was still moving fast or was just not paying attention. I actually remember thinking that thing is going to smack right in to me and there was nothing I or anyone could do about it. It was frightening.

For whatever reason, instead of grabbing my wife's hand and yelling "Hold On!" I instead quickly twirled my steering wheel to the left, floored the accelerator and let the clutch go... All the while I think I never took my eye off the rear view mirror while I watched this van get closer and closer. I think he was putting his brakes on at the time this was happening... I can honestly say my brain did not record a single sound that was occuring at that moment.

I'm not a religious man, but I was thanking some kind of entity I somehow got out from between the two trucks that eventually did collide. I was lucky I had a bit of shoulder room on the left of the freeway to make that move.

When i got out of my car to see if anyone was injured the first thing that caught attention was the damage. If you dont know what I'm talking about, a PGE utility truck is one of those utility trucks that phone and electric companies use. Both of the vehicles were badly damaged they are both made of hefty materials. I was amazed how much damage there was. The PGE guy was a little shaken up, but the driver that was in the Van was injured. I don't know the extent of his injuries but he was awake when the ambulance took him away. There was some blood and was in pain, but he never lost consciousness... which is good.

I'm sharing this because now that I've had a few days to get over the initial shock I was thinking about how lucky I was to be driving my A4. Being a spirited young driver back in the days I know a little bit about how cars perform, and how they perform in wet conditions. I don't think any of my past cars with front wheel drive nor rear wheel drive would have got me out of that. I had maybe a few feet to play with in front of me and any other car I've had in the past would have either whipped it's tail out or just plowwed straight ahead before it started actually making it's turn.

and no, I'm not a spokesperson for Audi =). just glad mine has quattro because I think it saved me bodily harm.

 

That's always the first thing I do when slowing down or coming to a stop- check the rear view mirror. You almost always know how much room you have in front of you, but don't have much control of how much you'll have behind you.

Kudos to your inspired instincts, and glad to hear that you both made it out ok.

 

Good that you are OK. That is why I also drive a Quattro.

 

Great story! Thanks for sharing.

 

that could've been real bad being in your shoes but I'm glad to hear you're all OK and that entity saved you.

I'm not a religious man myself either but I run into that entity once in a while too and I owe him/her/it big time!

 

i always look back when there is traffic..just in case

 

me too... I am an athiest, but damn, sometimes there is SOMETHING that I am in debt too somewhere...