Got into my first "Crash"

Glad to know you're okay. Lesson learned for all of us.

 

+1 on the glad you're OK. At exactly age 19, I learned two very important lessons in vehicles - both without any damage. One involved recovering from a multi-fishtailing episode in my dad's (C4 convertible) Corvette.

This is part of growing up... Every time it happens, you get a notch more conservative, and realize a shade more of your own mortality. Every lesson you can learn with no or minimal consequences is a blessing.

At some point, you'll just remember it as "wow, (1) that was awesome, and (2) I'm a lucky SOB." Lesson learned, moving on to bigger and better things!

 

Yes you could've hit a tree or an oncoming car, but worse yet you could've hit and killed a mother pushing her baby in a stroller or a cyclist on the side of the road. Thanks for sharing your mistakes with us so that others can learn. Obviously you now know that you've been driving stupidly, we've all done it before and it's good to get a reminder of what can go wrong.

 

Glad to hear you are safe.

Now that the lesson has been learned, unfortunately the hard way, you can only change for the better.

 

Glad you are OK - lesson learned! We've probably all done it, I know I have when I was young.

I am with Yoda... it's not so much about what could have happened to you (since you are an 18+ adult and responsible for your own actions) - what if you hit a pedestrian or what if you hit another car and killed a mother or father or a child? Not only would you possibly be in hospital but you would definitely be in jail afterwards and you would have to live with that all your life.

You should sign up for a race school. Don't to the skib barber crap - do a real race school. The one in Pahrump is good, as is the Panoz school in Atlanta. They are worth the money. Or do some track days at Pocono. The only way to really learn your limits and how to control them is to exceed them a bunch of times and learn that limit.

 

I think the "hard way" would be totalling a car or even worse, injuring/killing a third party and living with negligence lawsuit for the rest of your life.

I think he learned it the easy way.

 

Consider yourself lucky. In 2005 ther was an avg. of 114 people killed per day in auto accidents. Of those 80% were caused by excessive speed. Enjoy the ride

 

I learned my lesson around that age as well. In the rain as well and went around the corner just a bit too fast. Basically did a 360. I was turning right in the wet and lost control. I tried to stop it by putting on the brakes (dumb move) and obviously that didn't work. I ended facing the same direction as I was before I turned except now I was perpendicular to the cars coming at me to my left. Thankfully there was a red light at that intersection so no cars were on that portion of road. Btw, it was a RWD Ford Explorer with no traction control and the Firestone tires that could blow at any second. I wasn't going fast enough to flip, but was fast enough to lose traction in the wet.

Edit: In the same car at the same intersection in the wet at a different time, I locked the brakes turning into that road I was turning out of before. Some pedestrian was running across the road I was turning onto in the wet and I couldn't see him til it was almost too late. Slammed on the brakes, wheels locked, steering kicked the tires to the right (I was turning them left before they locked), and I came to a stop. I made sure to flick off that guy running across. I don't think the Explorer had anti-lock brakes either. It was a '92 and didn't have airbags as well.

 

Are you talking about 436 and Red Bug Rd. in Orlando?

 

Nah, Turkey Lake Road and Hollywood Way (Universal Stuidos). http://wikimapia.org/#y=28468389&x=-81474888&z=18&l=0&m=s&v=2

I did the 360 when turning onto Turkey Lake (northbound) coming from Universal Studios. Second time I slid in the wet was turning into Universal going southbound on Turkey Lake.

 

WOW... deja vu!

When I was 19 I was on a curvy road by my parents house in Rancho Santa Fe in my moms new BMW 745i (before the Maser QP). I got sideways on a turn (and that is a HUGE car to manage to get sideways) and thanks to traction control I stopped sideways in the middle of the road. I was VERY lucky that I didn't go off the road and that there weren't any cars coming the other way. I considered myself very lucky as it could have been bad very easily (road lined with trees) and I have since slowed down. A good way to learn a lesson without damaging anything or anybody... And since I was by myself my parents never even found out. :/

 

Good to hear that ur OK Chris.

 

Glad to hear it wasnt as bad as it could have been. We have all been there, and hopefully you will be smart enough to learn from it. Sometimes it takes more than one scary moment for you to learn your lesson. I have had a few scary moments that could have been very bad. It is fun to look back on them and tell the stories, but I wish I would have learned better sooner.

 

Yup Ive been there. Sometimes you gotta take a knock to know whats up. Thankfully it wasnt to big of a knock.

 

Glad it wasnt worse...

When I was 19 I bought my first car..a Honda Accord hatchback.. I used to take it out late at night and let it out.

I had it 3 weeks before I totaled it. Luckily it was on an empty road at 3am and no one was hurt.

LESSON LEARNED

 

LOL... A common trend developing here?

We are all very fortunate to still be here as we all are "gear heads" on this site. We always say "learn from our mistakes" but any true car guy has to go through his own experience before they lose that "invincible" feeling. Only luck that none of us have killed anyone. Be smart on the street and have your fun at the track.