WHAT PREVENTED THIS ACCIDENT?
By: Bob Gummersall
This almost accident happened to my good friend Tom Behm. Here is his description of what happened. He was driving a 40' Monaco Signature with a Honda Odyssey in tow.
"It happened the morning I departed from Perry Georgia, the FMCA Rally, as I was heading south to pick up my wife who was visiting a sick friend in Florida. The morning was clear, warm and dry. I was driving south on I-75 at 67 mph with a posted speed limit of 70 mph. The road took me through modest Interstate turns over gently rolling hills, which made for a pleasant drive. Then, just as I topped one of those modest hills in the right lane --- there it was just 50 yards ahead of me--- all the traffic was stopped!
My first thought was "it wasn't supposed to end this way, my wife will never know what really happened". I was more frightened than I had ever been, even when I was flying in Korea as a young Air Force Pilot. I handled many airborne emergencies, but never felt this afraid. I felt that death was about 5 seconds away, images of the carnage of a high-speed collision sprung to my mind.
I then reacted, steering into the empty lane to my left, braking hard. I drove into the median strip abrest of two lanes of traffic, with the coach at 50 mph. Fortunately the median was graded at about 10 degrees and was grass with no cement drainage ditches. The coach started to lean and jack-knife so I let up on the brakes and steer hard left into the slide. The coach slide this way for 8 seconds with the rear-end about 20 degrees left of forward movement. Then, it started to straighten and I could reapply the brakes and steer straight coming to a stop in about another 7 seconds without hitting anything. Those 20 seconds were the most frightening of my life!"
So, what prevented this possible terrible accident, which surely would have caused serious injury or death along with a lot of property damage?
Here's my opinion: (1) Tom reacted with the correct maneuver, choosing to risk his person and property and steer for the ditch. (2) Even though his coach weighs in at 45,000 lbs, it stayed upright in the face of a jack knife, because of its wide stance and 8 airbag suspension. (3) The center median was designed to allow this kind of evasive maneuver and there was room to steer away from traffic. And (4) A higher power helped that day.
In my Safe Driving Article, I emphasized practicing (1) highway speed emergency land changes, (2) panic Stops, (3) driving off the road into the ditch, and (4) doing the "What would I do If" game. Tom is an excellent driver with good reaction time and he is very familiar with what his coach will do under these extreme conditions. He did violate one of my rules however, and that is, your speed needs to be adjusted for the distance you can see at the time. He got lulled into Interstate Highway Numbness and with the rolling hills, even though the posted speed limit was 70 mph, he should have slowed his speed.
What do you think? Email your answer to bobg@cmn.net and I'll post the consensus.