Stupid Tire

November 20, 2007 /

Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to see a black tire with no rims on a black road on a dark night on the freeway? How if there are no other cars around you to shine their headlights, and no streetlights, a tire might just sit in the middle of the road, waiting for you? No? Me neither. Until Monday night. On Monday night, Maya and I were taking Jackie home after Enchanted, and I was going about 70 mph (practically the slow lane around here), when I heard and felt a huge BANG!!!, and then I saw a tire go flying off to my left, and bounce over the divider, into the oncoming traffic. My first confused thought was that it was my tire, I had hit something hard, and it had thrown my tire off into the fast lanes of traffic…but no, my car was driving along just fine. My second thought was that clearly we were all still alive and fine, so I was very relieved. Maya and Jackie were scared, and wanted to know what it was. I was scared, and wanted to know what it was doing in the middle of the freeway. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a delivery size truck on the side of the road, with its lights on. Hmm…maybe their tire.

The car seemed to be driving OK, and I didn’t want to pull over and be stuck on the shoulder of the freeway at night, so I kept going. But every time we went over a bump, I would hear a slight scraping noise. Uh oh, I thought, something has come loose. By the time we got to Jackie’s house, the car was starting to smoke from under the hood, and some liquid was coming out of the front of the car. I took Maya and Jackie, still very shaken, to the door, then went back out to look at the car and get my phone so I could call Ted. I couldn’t see any damage to the front bumper of the car, but there was clearly damage, because of the smoke and the liquid. Sigh.

Jackie’s parents drove us home, and luckily we didn’t see any accidents on the other side of the freeway, where the tire had been thrown after I hit it. The truck was still there, but there was now a tow truck there to help them. So we left the car at Jackie’s house, and this morning, called the insurance company to get it towed. At this point we haven’t yet heard what the problem is, though if I had to bet money, I’d bet the radiator got bashed up. Poor car.

But keeping priorities in order, I’m very thankful that no one was hurt. Stupid tire.

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