Deep Scratch

Is this a self fulfilling prophesy again? Today is the 13th of the month, almost the middle of the month near which I was trying to be extra careful in order not to make a new accident, bump or scratch for my i10. I had in mind to watch out for the 15th of the month, but hey, it happened today, unfortunately.

I was trying to park at night yet the narrow street I was at was so busy. I usually went to that place on Friday mornings when it was rather uncrowded. Today I went on a Wednesday evening. Not finding a place to park I waited a few moments on one side of the road with my emergency flashers on to allow the traffic in this narrow two-way side street to pass. I then reversed moving backwards and stopped to give more rooms for the rest of the traffic to pass by. After the street was finally empty from any traffic, I attempted to move backwards in search for a place to park in. I heard a load a long bumping sound, it came from my left side. It turned out that I was sharply scratching against a perpendicularly parked car on my left side while I was reversing back. I was shocked and extremely unhappy about that.

Later on when I checked the damage after I had parked I found that the scratch in my car was deeper than anyone I had before, yet thank God its length was not much.

Lesson: No matter what, whenever you are reversing make sure you are at a safe distance from cars parked next to you. Then and only then can you start reversing.

Sharp Braking

Yesterday I was saved from an almost sure accident. I was driving back home on the fast lane and there was that car in front of me going forward with high speed. I was driving behind that car and matching its speed. Never had it crossed my mind that the car in front of me might suddenly make a sharp stop, which it actually did. Seems there was some sort of speed bump or actually low remnants of some sort of 'unofficial' speed bum which the car at my front did not notice until the very last moment causing the driver to take a sudden decision to stop sharply. Me being behind that car and not expecting it to stop sharply I had to hit the brakes even more sharply managing to get my car to a complete stop just a few inches before colliding with it. In my brain, the the last split second I believed I was going to collide with it. Thank God I have not. Anyway, now I have a new lesson to learn, and learn well I should.

Lesson: No matter what, even if you are not expecting the speeding car in front of you to make any sudden sharp stops, keep a good distance between it and your car just in case anything unexpected happens. It's worth it.

Forgetting Parking Lights On

The day before yesterday, which coincided with the last day of 2009, I forgot my parking lights on after parking the car and went upstairs to my house without noticing they were on.

The reason why I forgot them on was that I was driving during the day and normally when I drive during the day I do not turn the parking lights (nor headlights for sure) on. So that is why as I parked the car I left it without noticing that the lights were on, since it was still daylight and I know I do not switch the lights on when during the day.

It was not until I looked at the car from the window as the night approached that I observed my front lights were not dim but were shining. At first I believed it was the reflection of the street lights next to the car that made them shine. Yet observing that all the cars parked next to mine had their front lights so dim I realized that indeed my parking lights were on. I thought of getting down and switching them off but was a bit lazy to do so. I was planning to go out in an hour or so anyway so I postponed switching them off right then. As the night approached more, it was so clear my parking lights were on for they shone brightly in the darkening street.

Although I was about to change my mind about going out yet the state of my parking lights being left on encouraged me to go out. I waited till the time came and went down stairs to shut the parking lights off. I then went to the place I was going to, it was close by my house so I went walking.

Lesson: Remember to make sure that your parking lights (and headlights) are turned off as you take your keys out and get out of the car. This can be easily checked from the dashboard which is lit up when the parking lights (or headlights) are still on.