Re: No AAA member, what if I get a flat tire?

Gordon Burditt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

[...]

> A ripped-to-shreds tire would make it harder to push, but
> I could probably still do it.  

Bev was talking about a *disabled* car.  A car that has a flat
tire can still be driven off the road.  There'd be no reason to
push it.


> On the couple of times in 30 years when I've had a tire blow
> out, and the one time I was stupid and thought I could make
> it to the next gas station but couldn't, and the time the
> engine just lost power and quit on me, all on the freeway,
> I managed to get to the side of the road and out of traffic
> with the momentum I had left, without hitting anything or
> even coming close to hitting or being hit.  All of these
> happened in at least moderate traffic.

Assuming that one's car is in the right lane when it conks out,
I think all this fear of being hit is overblown.  A car doesn't
suddenly become invisible just because the engine stops or a 
tire blows out, right?  Assuming you're not sitting in a blind
curve or below the crest of a hill, people are going to see you
and brake or steer around you just like they'd see and brake or
steer around a slower vehicle (as opposed to a _stopped_ vehicle)
in their lane.


> The one situation which I almost got stuck in the actual middle
> of the freeway was a HUGE backup (I later found out there were
> helicopters landing to take injured to the hospital, and the
> whole freeway was shut down for many hours, and I arrived near
> the end of it), where after several hours I came close to run-
> ning out of gas.

I was caught in a two-and-a-half-hour traffic jam up 19th Avenue
to Park Presidio and onto the Golden Gate Bridge one Sunday a few
years back.  It was just hideous.  It turned out that some guy
who had epilepsy but had concealed it from the DMV had a grand
mal seizure at the wheel of his Mercedes on the Golden Gate
Bridge and played bumper cars with the other traffic.  Several
people were killed; I don't recall exactly how many.



Geoff

-- 
My Child Was Fascist Of the Month
At Rudolf Hess Elementary School