My Near-Death Experience on Route 481 North and Why It Happened
I had a near-death experience on Route 481 near Oswego and it was the scariest moment of my entire life.
You know that expression "my life flashed before my eyes"? Well, I can tell you that it's not entirely accurate - because I came as close to dying as I ever have and mostly, everything moved in slow-motion.
Here's what happened:
My youngest daughter, her friend and I were headed to Oswego for her orientation. It was raining. My daughter was driving and I was in the back seat. She passed a car in the right lane and moved back into the lane when the car (yes, THAT car) started to hydroplane and head into the shoulder. As tried to correct, the car spun counter-clockwise across 481 - 360 degrees, twice - and then headed toward the southbound lanes. We were sliding forward and sideways, in a massive arc. We skidded into the grassy median, headed toward the oncoming traffic - and then slid backwards, coming to rest in the median - muddy, but totally unhurt.
The whole ordeal lasted seconds - even though it felt like minutes. Hands down, it was the scariest moment of my entire life - for every single reason you can imagine. My child was driving, there was someone else's child in the car - we had no control. When we stopped, I noted we were about 50 yards from the Oneida River overpass. I don't even want to think about that.
I have to give a big shout out to Matt Nimey of Nimey's The New Generation - he happened to be at an auction near Syracuse - and came right over to haul us out of the ditch. In the end, it came down to tires that needed to be replaced. As Matt's dad - a very wise man - said: it doesn't matter what kind of car you drive, the tires are the only part in contact with road - so make sure they're in good shape.
So - check you tires today, would you?
Have you ever had a near death experience? What happened?