Today's GM story involves one of the strangest, and most heart-stopping occurrences I've ever had behind the wheel. To set the stage, let me say that one of the things that we often did while testing for GM was drive off property. Some of the more popular spots for the engineers to send us to were Payson, Superior, and where I was going to for this story, Globe.
Globe is an old mining town in central Arizona. Billy the Kid is one of the more famous residents of Globe in years past. And while that famous resident shot up saloons and killed people, my mission was much more mundane, and boring: log test miles in a car and run certain sections of road to see how certain parts of the car performed. But Globe is not where my story today takes place. For that, you have to go back to the sleepy hamlet of Queen Valley, or more precisely, the railroad crossing just past town.
The road to Globe goes through this particular railroad crossing, and the route the GM engineers wanted the test driver to take also ran through there. This particular route had stops at certain pull outs, where we were to stop, and then accelerate up to a certain speed. This one particular one at the Queen Valley railroad crossing was at an asphalt pad just past the railroad. I pulled in to the pullout, stopped as instructed, and then as soon as I was stopped, I made ready to accelerate hard up to the speed limit, as the engineers desired for that test.
So just as anyone would do, I pulled up close to the edge of the road, and looked behind me. The time was a bit past 5 PM as I recall, and as always at this time, the road, AZ 60, a two lane highway, was busy. There were many cars behind me, and many cars on the other side of the road going the other direction, but I wasn't too concerned with them, as the fact that they were on the other side of the road meant that they weren't going to effect me.
So I looked behind me, patiently waiting for my chance to enter the traffic stream and make my way towards Globe. One car...then another...then two more... and finally, a gap. I get ready to hit the gas, knowing that I have to accelerate hard to get out of the pullout and get up to speed so that I don't impede the traffic behind me and cause a dangerous situation as I pull out.
The last car I had to wait for passes me, and I get ready to hit the gas. I've done all I need to do for safety, and since I'm sure that behind me is clear, I turn my head to the front, and hit the gas.
But as soon as I hit the gas, I shifted my feet and slammed on the brakes for all that they were worth. For just as that last car went past me that I was waiting for, a car on the other side of the road, seeing that same gap, took that same opportunity to go that I was waiting for, but for him, he entered my side of the road to pass the slower car in front of him. Had I not looked forward for that split second before hitting the gas, whoever that driver was, and I, would have been involved in a very nasty head on collision. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I had to take a second to compose myself, as this was the last thing I was ever expecting on that road.
This was such an odd occurrence that I have never seen it since, nor have I ever heard of it happening to anyone else. But it did happen to me on that day. The moral of the story: do not assume that anything is safe or that any part of the road does not need to be looked at when you are entering traffic. While what happened to me is pretty rare in my experience, the notion of assuming that a driver only needs to focus on one direction can be since to be working pretty often actually, anytime someone attempts a U-turn at an intersection. The next time you attempt a U-turn at an intersection, take a look at the cars turning right at the same intersection that you are going to do your U-turn at. Most of the time, the people turning right will not even look up to see if someone is going to try a U-turn that might end up in the same lane that they are in, and I personally have had some close calls with people turning right just as I start a U-turn who didn't have a turn signal going and for whom I thought they were waiting for the light to turn green to go straight. So this example isn't as extreme as it might have first been thought to be, but it does do a great job of illustrating just how important it is to not assume anything and to know what's going on all around you at all times. Until next time...
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