4 Lessons Learned From Spinning In The Rain

It was 8 a.m. on Martin Luther King Day, 2010.

I was driving to work in pouring rain.

I had gotten past Capitol Expressway exit on Highway 87.

I was in the fast lane.

I was driving at about 55 miles per hour.

Suddenly, a car in front of me began to hydroplane.

Whether from being sleepy because of having worked all weekend on the Q2 true-up commissions for Extreme Networks, my then employer...

....or whether from being preoccupied with the day's tasks ahead...

I did not respond as the good book (The California Driver's Handbook) says.

I was supposed to take my foot off the accelerator.

No Ayrton Senna,  I did just the opposite

I slammed the brakes.

And swerved to the left.

First my car lost traction, slid left and hit the highway divider.

Then, it began to spin.

Honda Civic in 'Whirling Dervish meets Swan Lake'

And spin.

And spin.

And spin.

Like it was in a ballet performance of its own design.

The performance concluded when we were all the way to the other side of the freeway.

When we stopped, my car was on the shoulder of the slowest lane.

Facing oncoming traffic.

Herbie wanted to take his bow.

His last bow with me as it turned out.

Shaken.  Stirred.  And Car-Less

The incident cost me a broken axle.

And enough structural damage to make the car unsafe to drive.

The medics came.

I waved them off  because I was miraculously unhurt.

The cops came.

I cowered in shame in the backseat of the cop car -  while in the front seat, they typed up an unflattering report about my little escapade.

Then the tow truck came.

And before you knew it, I was back home.

Shaken.  Stirred.  And Car-Less.

The Value of Life in 3-D

But amazed.

Amazed that I had not collided with another car in spite of spinning across 4 lanes of the freeway.

Amazed that all I had to show for the spinning was some residual whiplash.

Amazed that I was alive.

I would not recommend spinning in the rain to anybody as an experience.

But it did make the value of being healthy and alive come out in 3D to me.

I know that other people who have been involved in accidents or near accidents report the same feeling of a heightened sense of the value for life.

Who Knew - A Shared Experience With Joel Osteen!

Within less than 6 months of my accident, I found myself reading Your Best Life Now, which, along with Become a Better You, are two of the most positive books I've read in my life.

Both are written by Joel Osteen.

Joel Osteen is the pastor of one of the biggest non-denominational Christian churches in America - Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.

He broadcasts to over 7 million viewers in 100 countries of the world so you may have heard of him.

The reason I bring the book up is because in one of the chapters in the book, he relates a hydroplaning incident that happened when he was driving on a Texas freeway at the age of 18.

I got gooseflesh from reading about that hydroplaning incident.

Because it was so similar to mine.

You could just interchange the names and it would be my story.

However, Osteen's escape was more miraculous.

Because his car came to a halt just in front of an oncoming 18-wheeler.

Close Shave!

Reading the chapter in Osteen's book brought back for me, the amazement of being alive.

I really do value life much more since the accident than before it.

I also learned some other valuable lessons from being in the accident.

Not immediately after the accident though.

While happy to be alive and unhurt, immediately after the accident, I was smarting from the fact that I was car-less and out of pocket for a substantial amount of money.

When my friend Lakshmi, who happened to call within a couple of hours of the accident, suggested I look on the bright side and be grateful it had happened without any injury to myself  or anyone else - I remember being secretly irritated by her advice.

But you know what. She was right. The value of not having caused harm to any human being, including myself, was priceless.

And I actually did learn some additional lessons as well.

Here they are:

1.  You May Not Be Able To Carry Out Every Intention

I bought the Honda Civic from my sister when she returned to India.

It had 95,000 miles on it.

I planned to drive it until I had put 200,000 miles on the odometer.

At least.

But the accident made the car a write-off at 134,000 miles.

The intention to drive it for 200,000 miles went out the window.

You may not be able to carry out your every intention.

No matter how clever it is.

Or how much money it will save you.

Lesson learned.

2.  You Don't Know That You Don't Know

I was diligent with my car services.

Oil change every 3000 miles.

Up-to-date on minor and major services.

And repair work.

My downfall turned out to be my tires.

I had assumed my oil change facility or my mechanic would tell me if  those needed to be replaced.

But they never did.

In hindsight, two of my tires were probably bald.

And needed to be replaced.

But I didn't know that I didn't know.

And I had to learn it after the fact.

I now do my oil changes at a tire facility.

Lesson learned.  

3. You May Find Out About Errors In Your Thinking The Hard Way

The Civic had 95,000 miles on it plus a few dents and dings.

So I decided to waive Collision and Comprehensive insurance.

I took out just Liability and Bodily Injury insurance on it.

I told myself in the event of an accident, if it was my fault, I'd be covered by my insurance.

If it was the other driver's fault, I'd be covered by their insurance.

But of course I was in a single car accident.

So I was out of pocket for my car.

Where was my thinking wrong?

I was wrong in thinking in terms of the price I paid for the car.

My sister, bless her soul, practically gave the car away to me before she went back to India.

(By the way, she is now the proprietor and manager of  Sundance serviced apartments near UB City Mall in the heart of Bangalore, India, and you can read about Sundance and reviews of Sundance on Trip Advisor here if you plan to visit Bangalore)

Since I had not paid market price for the car, I should have thought in terms of the replacement value of the car.

If I had to buy the same car with the same year, make and model and with 95,000 miles on it in the market, what would it cost me?

That should have determined my insurance coverage.

I had to find out the hard way.

Lesson learned. 

4.  Changes In The Car Buying Process

Luckily, this story ends well.

I bought my first used car back in 1997.

13 years later when I bought my car in 2010 , I was pleased to discover the car buying process was a wholly different ball game.

There were so many more tools in the kit.

And I was able to buy my car with total confidence.

I have written a previous post about this called 5 Steps to Buying a Used Car With Confidence which lists these tools.

If you haven't read it, you can read it here.

And that was my final lesson learned.

P.S. I leave you on the note that no experience is ever a loss. You just have to look for the lessons to be learned. Having said that, do look after your car. And also please don't drink and drive!  Let's keep the roads safe for everyone in 2011!