Look Left

Random personal thing.

I’m not a car guy and find vehicle shopping to be a mostly utilitarian exercise. No real taste. Car and Driver gives the car a high rating. Fine, whatever, put it on the short-list.

I actually love the aesthetics of cars and will go to car museums and car shows if it’s convenient. And sometimes when it’s not. On my birthday last year we went to Petersen’s in LA. I especially dig American muscle cars from the 60s and 70s. Ford vs Ferrari is one of my favorite movies of all time.

My mom claims when I was 4-years-old I would sit on the stoop in Brooklyn and be able to name the make of every car that drove down Avenue Z in Sheepshead Bay.

But path dependance interjected.

The summer before my freshman year of HS, on the way back from 6 Flags in NJ, I was asleep in the backseat. I awoke mid-spin. I can still remember what felt like a dream just before crashing into a telephone pole.

Confused I was feeling around and felt something moist.

It was my shin bone.

I was 13-years-old and panicked, throwing the door open, falling on the grass. The first responders were there quickly. I was in shock. But we were in a convenient location — the hospital was a mile down the same road. Apparently we were t-boned in the middle of an intersection where 3 nurses, late to work, ran a red light.

My mother was driving. She was fine. A close friend was in the driver seat, no seat belt. Unscathed. My sister was concussed and talking gibberish. I learned later my mother was most concerned about her since my sis’ behavior was really erratic and I just had a “cut”.

A 9” cut that took over 2 hours to thread with over 60 stitches and a summer of being on crutches but ultimately just a cut. (The skin on your shin is thin — the culprit was the pizza cutter shaped hinge that opened and closed the center console in the car.)

6 years later I was again asleep in the back seat of a car. It was about 7am. Me and a few college friends were driving from a Paul Oakenfold show in Montreal after being awake all night to Toronto for a rave the following night.

The driver fell asleep.

The Ford Taurus struck the median, ricocheted across a 4-lane highway to rest in the opposite shoulder. Every car behind us at 110 k/h dodged the “best-selling car in America” giving us all another day on Earth.

I tell my kids all-the-time, the most dangerous thing we do every day is get in the car. Maybe one day I’ll have a refurbished 70s Blazer as a beach cruiser. But the Ferrari posters on my teenage walls were the dreams of (literally) unscarred youth.

Peter Attia cited a stat that 90% of fatal car accidents happen at an intersection by a car coming from the left. That is exactly what happened to us that night coming back from 6 Flags. If today’s post does nothing but make you think of that every time you get to a 4-way, then I’ll never top this issue.