noodle

I, like Hal, am afraid of driving in NYC. And Boston.
And I was intimidated as heck for the first three days I was in San Francisco.
I am typically the designated driver because I have that magic switch many of my friends are lacking that makes me go... "hmm, I don't want to drink any more." Or at all.

I was in a major accident at age 17 when I was t-boned by some asshole in a 1979 gold BMW. I was cited because I pulled out of a parking lot across three lanes of traffic towards a center lane. I don't remember much. But apparently, I should have seen the man coming out from behind a black pickup truck while changing lanes. He said he was going the posted speed limit of 55mph. The guys who checked out the skid marks for my father (who is a mechanic) reported that he was going around 60 at impact after 100 feet of single skid marks and he then pushed my '79 Volare another 150 feet down the road, sideways. Slightly difficult to accomplish if one had slowed down from 55. There was no way to prove it because the accident report didn't concur. He tried to sue us because he had a sore neck, which I think was later proven to be malingering. I had a broken pelvis.

Yeah, I'm afraid of driving a lot of the time.
But my worries make me more vigilant the majority of the time.
And other than getting rear-ended at a stoplight (obviously not my fault), I've avoided a LOT of potential incidences over the next 15 years.

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