Driving home from the gym this morning I was accelerating from a stop light and still in 1st gear. In the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a silver Honda traveling northbound (downhill) across my right front quarter panel.

It was a 4 lane highway and I had already crossed the 2 southbound lanes and 1 of the northbound lanes. In an instant I crushed the brake pedal to the floor...and missed the Honda by about 2 feet.

He nailed a minivan after missing me (nobody hurt, luckily) Just some bonehead running a red light.

Anyway-I will never take for granted the handling of these MINI's! They cannot be beat. Motor on.

 

Good Job, man! After 2 near misses in one week (and these would have caused a great deal of injury and damage), I made up my mind that I will never again leave a stoplight without looking both ways first. The amount of red light runners seems to have increased exponentially in recent ears.

 

And a to you for paying attention to your surroundings!

I had a similar instance a few months ago. Was travelling on the highway and came onto stopped traffic. As I slowed down, I checked my mirror and noticed an SUV closing on my rear FAST. There was no way he'd stop in time. As I stopped, I moved over to the right side of my lane (left lane). Traffic in the right lane was moving, so I couldn't merge. The SUV driver saw the stopped cars at the last second and dropped on to the left side shoulder, missing me by inches. If I had stayed in the middle of my lane... who knows... might have been a multi-car pile-up I may not have walked away from... Instead, I just gave him a good glare as I passed him a few yards later...

 

Great news on the near miss. Not the way you want to start your morning, but could have been much worse

 

Glad you were paying attention and were not hurt.

 

Darn. I had that happen to me in a Jetta. I was in a dual turn lane turning left with a green light. In the corner of my eye I saw this car coming. In a split second I was like oh they are going to stop, oh they are going to stop, OH NO. I floored it and the Jetta didn't respond, boom the car slammed in the side of my car. My head hit the font and driver side window, breaking both. The car spun my car around which ended up slamming another car, which slammed another car. I think there were a total of 5 cars involved. Of course I took the brunt of the impact. When I got out of my car some chick was screaming at me. I was like, Listen $#%#& I didn't cause this accident. Needless to say it took a while for the light bulb to go off in her head. After that she was a little nicer. My car ended up being scrapped. The good news was I wasn’t really hurt. I did find myself three or four days after the accident pulling glass out of my skull.

 

Yea, I'm not sure if you saw my thread or not, but last week someone almost hit me. I was 2 INCHES away from hitting him! Well, he pulled out in front of me, so it would have been his fault.

Props go to MINI!
-Cody

 

Red light runners should be strung up from the nearest stop light....
I have VERY little sympathy for the "oh I'm going to be late" red light runners. Another woman and I were facing each other in left turn lanes. We both had left turn arrows... I ALWAYS pause a couple of seconds to make sure the traffic has stopped and check both ways. Five of the six lanes were filled with stopped cars. It looked clear and we both started out (she was actually quicker into the intersection than I was) when this IDIOT came screaming down that last open lane and flew into the intersection. I slammed on my brakes in my trusty little '97 Altima and the aforementioned idiot just swerved and went inbetween the two of us then just kept on going. He missed both of us by about two inches. We just sat there. She burst into tears and I was hyperventilating. Another couple of inches and the guy would have hit me right in the driver's door. I heard later a cop got him farther down the road going 70. The speed limit was 45. So I'm with you.. I always double check and I wait a second or two before heading out into the intersection. It really irritates the people behind you but it's my life I'm worried about.

 

I agree with double-checking before going on green, but if you're paying enough attention to the pending light change, you can "pre-check" the cross-traffic as their light starts to change. In many cases, this could reduce or even eliminate your extra pause time when your light goes green.

The "long pause" and horn honking from behind is more likely to happen if you don't notice the light is changing to green until it already has.

 

Wow. That is not the kind of heart-pouding you want while motoring! Glad you didn't get hit.

 

being alert and able also helps.. the car's just the tool

glad you both are safe

 

I've already avoided a red light runner but that was because i floored while at 2k in first gear and he probably missed me by about three or four feet

 

Kudos to your fast reflexes. I'm glad to hear that you're okay. I've had some close calls myself at lights...some drivers appear not to notice OR care that the light has turned red on their lane.