Near miss - brush with disaster

[saint]

Had a near death experience Friday night. Driving on a highway (wife behind the wheel) doing about 70 mph. We're coming on an intersection and we have the green so we maintain speed. Suddenly I hear sirens, and look around for the source. I realize the intersection we are like 2 seconds from has a high speed chase happening on the intersecting street, also about 2 seconds from the intersection. I bellow at my wife to stop (bad idea actually, no way to stop in time but no time to think rationally about it, just pure instinct not to get in the middle of a police chase), and she taps her brakes ... right when we are in the middle of the intersection. She instantly realizes it's a bad idea and floors it again, but by then both our vehicle and the bad guy are in the intersection.  I'm looking out my window, and about 10 feet away is the grill of the car the police is chasing, and I figure they were going about 70 mph or more as well. Someone was about to die.

Amazingly, the guy being chased swerves and just barely misses our back bumper as he continues down the road, cop hot on his heels.  It was right out of "America's scariest police chases" or some such. One split second of anyone doing something different and the chase was over and people were going to be hurt. Had me, my wife, my in-laws, and an aunt and uncle from out of town in the minivan.  Scary stuff -- thinking about making orphans of my kids. Hope they caught the bastard.

--- saint

[rlemmon]

That's terrible. Im glad you and your family are ok . It seems there are more idots on the road every day.

[JONTHEBOMB]

That's an intense story.  It's good to hear nobody got injured.  I bet the criminal was running for some pointless reason like he had a little bag of weed in his back seat and didn't want to get caught.  Your story is a great reason why you should cherish every single day because life can be gone in an instant.

[RayB]

There was alot of debate over high-speed chases here in the Toronto area a few years ago. I think the concensus was that it was safer to just let them go than to endanger innocent bystanders (since these things almost always end in a crash).

[hypernova]

What was the speed limit?

[saint]

65

What was the speed limit?

[miles2912]

Glad to hear that you are ok.  You see the videos of what happens when the cars colide and it just makes you shudder.. 

Don

[TheOtherBob]

That wouldn't have been pretty...

Glad to hear you're ok.... 

Make sure your stuff is in order (your Will, insurance, etc.) for your kids sake.....

[sirwoogie]

Man, God speed! Glad to hear everything worked out. Always remember, if you can't stop in time, floor it! Get out of the way as fast as you can.