Safety Gram - Going Fishing and Traffic Safety

  • Published
  • By Lou Czarnecki
  • 17th Training Wing Public Affairs
GOODFELLOW AFB, Texas --  It was 1956. I was seven years old. My friend Tommy Viola and I were digging for worms in my backyard. We were going to get worms and go fishing. I was digging in front of Tommy, when his shovel got caught on a tree root or something. When his shovel finally broke free, I caught its blade right across the bridge of my nose. Yep, it hurt! I was screaming and crying. Blood was everywhere. I couldn't see because of the blood and dirt that was in my eyes. I sure did give my mother a scare but cooler heads prevailed when she grabbed on to me and gently hosed me down to clean my face and see how bad the damage was. Needless to say Tommy and I didn't get to go fishing.

What's this got to do with traffic safety, you ask?

I was driving over 47th Street. Just before I reached the corner some high school kid in a beat up pickup turned onto 47th Street from Armstrong Highway. As he was turning, he almost took out the light pole on the corner. I hit the brakes and he missed taking out the front of my truck by maybe a foot. I should have known this was going to be a drive to remember and write about. I should have turned around and gone home. I didn't. That was my first mistake of the day.

Continuing down Armstrong Highway, I got behind a new green Pontiac Vibe. This driver was doing about 35 mph in a 50 mph zone. As a pickup attempted to pass her on the right she sped up. The pickup slowed; the Vibe slowed. The pickup sped up; the Vibe sped up. In the meantime another driver in a Camero was weaving between lanes. It seemed like he was driving in the back seat. Real cool, he thought. As he squeezed between me and the Dodge pickup, the Vibe slowed upsetting this kid even more. I became upset to which was my second mistake. Now there were a lot of cars in the bottle neck. Right there and then I figured I should get off the road for a bit and chill ... but ... I gotta get to work, I thought.

We got to the intersection of 19th Street and Armstrong Highway and it seemed like an eternity getting through that light. This driver in the Vibe is dangerous, I thought. I got a bit emotionally involved here. So I decided to give my car a bit more gas and get around the Vibe when we made our left turn. That was a bad move. I gave it some gas and then got to experience my whole life flashing before my eyes. I fishtailed! (There's the connection with digging for worms. Betcha thought I'd never get to that.) Thankfully, my guardian angel was looking out for me. There was no oncoming traffic.

I had fishtailed only twice before and that was in snow and ice. What I didn't give much thought to that morning was a thin layer of water over that intersection. Intersections are notorious for having accumulated oil and other lubricants left behind while vehicles wait at the lights. This is a condition that can result in zero traction which equals zero control. That's what I got to experience.

Well happy ending here. I did what I was supposed to do in a situation like this - ease up on the gas, steer in the direction of the skid, and two or three turns of the wheel got me straightened out but not before my Ranger got to be in three lanes all at the same time, or so it seemed. The other thing I distinctly remember was the brand new yellow Nissan Extera which was behind me. It all happened so fast I think the Nissan didn't have the reaction time to just fall back. She went around me on the right but the vehicles behind her slowed considerably.

The lady in the Vibe continued on her merry way at speeds between 15 mph and 20 mph.

A few of the things I did wrong this morning:

1. I was in a hurry.
2. I let the driving practice of the Vibe get to me.
3. I didn't take into consideration the morning moisture on oil stained pavement.
4. I didn't take into consideration that a pick-up is pretty light in the back end.
5. I got tunnel vision - I just wanted to get around the Vibe and I just wanted to get to work on time.

Fortunately all turned out okay. I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me and took my time getting to work - safe and sound in one piece.

Hmm, I wonder? Is the woman who was driving the yellow Nissan Extera the safety representative at her workplace? Is she, or someone else, going to write about the guy in the green Ranger who got over anxious to get to work and almost ...