Monday, January 18, 2010

Big Truck + Massive Puddle = Big Splash & A New Wheel Rim

So, if you live in the Lower Mainland, you MUST have noticed the massive amount of depressing rain that continues to fall and wreak havoc with my psychological well-being.
Friday morning was quite possibly one of the worst days for this rain and for this rain to ruin my day.
Let me take you back to Friday morning... It's 7:30am, the sun has not yet come out and the rain is quite literally falling down in buckets. I have just dropped Jacob off at work in Richmond and am driving through New Westminster on Stewardson Way on my way home to Maple Ridge. If you don't have any knowledge of Stewardson way, it is a piece of road that has two lanes for each direction, quite a few winding turns, and is surrounded by those lovely squared curbs (harder, and more dangerous, to drive over... we'll come back to that). This road is also very narrow which means that any mistake in the placement of your car on this road could result in a major catastrophy depending on the busy-ness of traffic.
So I am driving in the right hand lane on Stewardson way going about 50 km/hr (the speed limit is 60... but remember the massive amount of rain) and up ahead I notice a fairly massive puddle of standing water in the left hand lane. I think to myself, good thing I'm not driving in that lane! Hydroplaning is not very fun.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a massive comercial truck comes barreling down the road in the left hand lane and cannonball's itself into this massive puddle, sending a gargantuous tidal wave my way. In the split second that I was blinded by what seemed like a ton of water covering my windshield, I failed to correct for one of the slight turns in the road. My passenger side tire first grates hard against the sharp edges of the squared curb, then the tire decides to attempt a daredevil jump onto the curb at a slight angle. As my front passenger tire hits the square curb at 50 km/hr, my car tries to pretend that it is a monster truck attempting to make a jump but manages to only hit the jump with it's passenger side wheels. On the dismount, my tiny little car and it's tiny little driver (me) is thrown off the curb and into the left hand lane.
Luckily, because it was only 7:30-ish in the AM hours and I was driving AGAINST the flow of morning rush hour, there just happened to be no other cars in the left hand lane. This would have been a completely different story had there been.
At the end of the day, the only damage to my poor daredevil car was to the front passenger side wheel rim.

What a way to start my day!