kabam.

I witnessed a car accident this morning. I was zipping down the snowcaked highway at a hefty 25-30 miles per hour when the car in front of me began to fishtail. I slowed down as he wobbled back and forth on the highway three or so times before spinning clockwise into the right guard rail. The rail really beat up his car. There was certainly no physical harm to the driver, but the drivers side front and rear were pretty smashed.

What strikes me as odd is that the whole process was super slow. I have had my share of accidents and they always passed in slow motion. I assumed this was because my fearful brain, not unlike an overclocked hard drive, processed excessive amounts of information so time appeared to stall.

But the fact that this accident seemed slow even to me, a bystander who had time to casually check his rear view mirror and relax his foot onto the brake, makes me wonder if my experience of bullet time during accidents wasn’t actually anything unusual… and in fact, accidents just happen slower than we expect them to. Or maybe this guy’s accident just happened to be slow. eh. who knows.

9 thoughts on “kabam.

  • 12/9/2005 at 9:07 am
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    If you were doing 35-40mph that makes sense. I’ve seen accidents that look fast, but the ones i’ve been in felt super slow. So, I think you saw a slow accident.

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  • 12/9/2005 at 9:08 am
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    I find my accidents occur faster than normal. When I start to fishtail/spin/skid I figure why wait for what I know is going to happen, so I slam on the gas to get it over with.

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  • 12/9/2005 at 9:11 am
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    This is why he needs his own website!

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  • 12/9/2005 at 9:35 am
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    So did our “experience” coming back from Hebert’s Candy Mansion in Sturbridge seem slow, or fast?

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  • 12/9/2005 at 9:37 am
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    I recall that being slow. Very drawn out. Very frightening.

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  • 12/9/2005 at 10:55 am
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    Allright….what happened? Was the trunk laden with so much fudge that the car bottomed out?

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  • 12/9/2005 at 12:16 pm
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    Burn!
    Accidents vary, really. When I rolled the car, it seemed to take forever, but was all over in like 5 seconds. But then, when the motorcycle tossed me it seemed just as quick as it was. though I was tumbling for frickin ever. It may have taken longer, but the more I think about it the more sure I am I lost consciousness towards then end there.
    I think you just saw a slow accident: Snow’s like that sometimes, teasing you into thinking you can save the car, then stomping all over your newfound optimistic reality with expensive body damage.

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  • 12/9/2005 at 1:34 pm
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    Interesting stories. I have a brilliant track record as I have not had any accidents. In fact I just had a wonderful lesson. Hampered by the fact that it was totally foggy, full beam headlights just made it worse. It was not nice driving weather. But then it cleared and I drove well. Got my test booked for January, fun stuff

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  • 12/12/2005 at 12:18 pm
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    My car accident was over in a flash. But then, that involved less slow skidding on icy roads and more driving into the path of oncoming traffic, so there wasn’t any bullet-time slow motion stuff – it was just a sudden screech of tires and then *BAM*.

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