I was on my way home to Northborough, Massachusetts on Route 20, having just gotten off of I-495. As I reached the top of a rise just before the Marlborough/Northborough town line, I noticed headlights pointing towards me on the right shoulder of the road (that's my right, they were facing the wrong direction according to US traffic laws). Then everything slowed down: in the next instant I realized they were moving. Then they veered directly towards me...
The Scene of the Crime:
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| Heading West on Rte. 20. Green mark where a short braking skid was found. Most of the debris on the side of the road is plastic trim from the Thunderbird. | Red mark on right is short braking skid. I then tried to get left as the other car approached. The long red sweep is where the other car impacted and pinned my right rear tire, then pushed my back end over 90 degrees and into the other lane. | Apparently this driver was having a bad night. These are mailboxes they mowed down as they approached the rise where they creamed my car. Red dots for mailboxes, green dots for bits of Thunderbird they left behind. |
When I spotted the headlights I lifted off the throttle. When they veered into my lane everything starting moving in a freeze-frame or strobe light fashion; I may have braked suddenly enough to leave a 9-10 inch straight skid. I remember trying to get into the left lane to get by this maniac, which certainly saved me from a head-on collision and may have saved my life. The other car, a late-model Thunderbird, caught me just at the start of the passenger door and drove in towards the center of the car.
The Victim:
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| It was a good thing I didn't see this side of the car until I was being driven home... | A good view of the incursion into the body. | That Thunderbird was heading across my lane, and drove hard towards the transaxle. |
After spinning me around the Thunderbird rolled to a stop about 30 or 40 feet down the road, still facing the wrong way in the wrong lane. I was stunned for a minute after the impact, then started checking myself for damage, looking around, reaching for the cell phone, and getting out of the car - all at once. By the time I had cell phone in hand the other car was being restarted. By the time I got out of the car the Thunderbird was lurching forward across the road. Then I started shouting, because the T-bird was accelerating down the road, still in the wrong lane and building speed.
The driver did stop about 200 yards down the road, and pulled over - still on the wrong side of the road, but at least not moving. While I had been shouting a car had approached me and come to a stop, as I was squarely blocking their lane. I pulled my car out of the way, and they drove on without saying a word. Wonder what they made of it, or if they'd seen the damaged side of the car...
To wrap this up, I called the accident in on the cell phone while walking to the other car. The driver was underage and extremely drunk, and was later arrested on the spot by the police. My car was towed, and my insurance company paid me a sum far below what I'd put into the car. Much later they revealed they were also the insurer of the other driver...