driving home from work in the freezing rain I skidded in to a divider and then in to a ditch narrowly missing an on coming truck. Shortly after coming unstuck (thanks to a plow truck that took pity), I got to the bottom of the second hill and spun completely around. Luckily no other cars were on the road, so I was able to turn around with out incident.

I hate winter.

near death experiences anyone?

I once slipped over a rock while walking downhill on a hike and couldn't stop anymore (was a pretty steep alp). If my father wouldn't have caught me before a steep slope it wouldn't have ended pretty. And I once strained my ankle while walking along an arête and nearly fainted because of the sudden pain... well... it's a good idea to sit down in this situation which I did.

The first was actually way more dangerous but since my dad caught me I felt so safe that I didn't really realise it that day. The second happened while I was alone.

A few years back we were sitting in traffic which curved around a hillside, the traffic was backed up because a train was crossing. As we're sitting there this car comes absolutely barreling through next to us, driving along the ditch and hill, throwing rocks up. It was terrifying. It was some old man whom I guess lost control when he came around the bend and suddenly there were cars all backed up. He was on the side of the car that I was on so he could have easily plowed into me. I don't know if I would have died from it but I would have at least gotten badly hurt.

In relation to OP's story, I had something similar happen when I was a kid, in the winter time my mom was driving me home from school and as we went over a bridge to get home she started losing control and merging across lanes because of the ice. That was probably the scariest thing ever.

I've had a lot of near misses on the road (the roads in my area are awful), but the worst one was about 6 months ago when I came out to overtake a slow dump truck on a back road and he veered toward the center of the road and forced me into the gravel. I ended up fishtailing the car between the truck and a massive drop of the edge of the road with barely any room and a blind bend approaching. Basically I was forced to floor it and hope like hell I didn't spin out and that I cleared the truck before the bend, because braking wasn't an option with the way I was sliding.

I made it, but I'm pretty wary of overtaking on that road now, because that and a few other instances have taught me that the other drivers there don't seem to ever check their mirrors.

I've had a couple.

Once I was trying to cross the road, I tripped and fell scraping my knee and twisting my foot, and a cop car sped up rather than slow down and wait for to get out of the way. I had to roll two lanes over so he wouldn't hit me and int he process almost got hit by a truck. ._.

The trunk stopped but not the cop. I don't miss Florida drivers. :x

The only other time was when I was hospitalized for spinal encephalitis, in which I actually was dead twice on the way to the hospital. The fact that I'm alive at all is basically a miracle for which I'm grateful for. :)

Early last year, I contracted strep throat.

Because I was a.) living in a homeless shelter at the time, b.) the Executive Director of said shelter "doesn't believe in doctors" and refuses to allow anyone to call an ambulance if he's around because "it makes the Mission look bad," and c.) I was unaware of how to get to the hospital via bus, I put off going to the ER for almost a week.

By the time I was able to get to the hospital (because a different shelter staff member finally realized that I was really sick and not just exaggerating, and drove me there herself,) I was so sick that I could barely crawl out of bed, and so dehydrated that my kidneys were on the verge of shutting down because my throat had swollen almost completely shut and was so tender and painful that I could barely even swallow water. The nurse that examined my throat actually recoiled in horror and exclaimed "Oh my God!" it was so bad.

Two horse-sized needles of antibiotics and Prednisone later, I improved quite drastically. But if I'd waited another day or two, I might never have made it to the hospital.

Something similar. I was once on the highway on the way to school. It was 5 am, dark, and snowing hard. For whatever reason the snow/ice stuck to the windshield so bad that I could only see out a tiny window bit towards the bottom and the wipers weren't helping. Suddenly out of my tiny window I realized I'm about to miss my exit and jerk in that direction, which admittingly was a stupid thing to do but knee jerk reactions tend to be stupid. Thankfully the DOT does a good job of keeping the roads clear and not icy. Anyway, it wasn't till the next morning when I could see out my windshield that I realized just how close I had been to hitting the metal divider thing that separates the curve of the exit from the road continuing forward and rejoining the highway.

I get there to find that school had been canceled. Here's the thing. I went to a veterinary technician program. Said program had an onsite kennel and a number of smaller pets that students were required to care in four groups for a week once a month. That's why I had to be up at 5 am. But I also had a shift in the evening and was/am poor and couldn't afford to waste 60 miles (round trip) of gas and had to stay there all day and night. So night comes and the other students show up and we get stuff done. I stay later to check the charts and close up. Literally the last person to leave. The school is on a hill. So there I am all alone in the parking lot at 9pm, all my family 30 miles away, and the car sliding side to side the whole way down the hill and onto the main road. Which thankfully there wasn't any traffic on. The snow wasn't too bad then and like I said earlier the DOT keeps the roads in good condition so I didn't have a hard time getting home.

Also yes. I freaking hate winter. Specifically I hate snow and ice. If it never snowed again for the rest of my life I wouldn't care.

Huge reasons why I don't go out when it's icy, work can kiss my ass.

Glad you're safe though. That had to be terrifying.

Well there had been multiple times I've had bad luck with the roads when it is icy. I was coming home when it started snowing very heavily last year. I was in a sporty car going down a hill when I noticed someone was stopped after that hill. I started down the hill and lost traction. I started spinning around in circles and to avoid the car that was parked I almost ended up going head on with a guard rail. I also had this experience again when I was going uphill and I was stopping for a stop sign I lost traction again and got into a ditch and almost hit a telephone pole. I've had way to many almost moments. There have been a lot of people that have pulled in front of me too where I had to slam my brakes, you could hear the squealing of the tires.

I went to Florida on my winter break. There was so many accidents, I couldn't even count. Also all the drivers that just come and pass you whether it is safe to or not. Let's just say I'm glad that I didn't have to drive in any of it. Five lanes of traffic is very very scary and non existent where I live. ._.

Ohhh my goodness I'm glad all of you are okay. Cars and winter are terrifying.

That said, my near-death experiences have mostly been at home, and once in a hospital. They were literal body-failing, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel type things and I still get nightmares and flashbacks about it sometimes. Short story version: Lyme disease sucks, starvation (partly self-induced, partly because of screwed up GI system) sucks, it's a miracle I'm here. I would not wish this experience on anyone.

Guess what~ another winter car related story!

Last sunday the weather was really bad and a friend and myself were driving over to a friends house who lives in the country area of our city. The roads hadnt been plowed yet so I was going 40km/h tops and going no more than 30km for turns. I realized too late that the one turn I was taking was actually an s curved downward hill and I see my speedometer go from 30 to 35 to 40 and as I slam on my breaks my tires only spin and are basically useless. I'm about to hit the guardrail so I make a hard right and now I've overturned and am heading toward a ditch. At the bottom of the hill I hit a post on passenger rear door and it only made a small dent! Not even five minutes later a white truck with lights pulls in front of me and a guy dressed in brown smoking a cigarette comes out and makes a joke about how I'm in a ditch and its a bad place to be in and being in shock i just apologize. He starts doing his thing and helps pull my van out with his truck. I tried to give him the money left in my pocket but he wouldn't take it. He made sure my friend and I were okay and then just left.

tl;dr - lost control going down hill in a snowstorm and it could have been a lot worse than it was

I don't have any winter stories because winter doesn't exist where I live, BUT! One time someone nearly merged into my lane without even bothering to look on the freeway. Going 80mph, that would end VERY badly if either of us lost control.

My parents and I were almost hit by a semi that went through a red light. He didn't seem to care that we were already turning and had the right of way. Nope. Just kept driving. I wish we had turned and followed him so I could have reported the ass.

Oh god, I feel for you. A year ago I was in an accident because of icey roads and I will never forget it. If we didn't have such a well built car, my twin could be dead. But thank god the door took everything like a champ and he was completely fine.