We seem to have had a lot of threads on accidents, so I thought I'd bring up my own. Here's my story! ;)


I was burning leaves on the edge of the road in the fall. It's a two lane road and the smoke was pretty thick. I see two vans, one coming from each direction. They can't see each other. Being the nice guy, I try to wave the one on my side to stop for a second. He looked at me like I'm some kind of freak or idiot and swerved way out into the middle of the road to get away from me. That's when he made out the other van coming through the smoke and swerved directly back at me! I'm in decent shape and jumped into the middle of the bushes next to the road to avoid being splattered! He plowed straight through the fire where I was standing without even hitting the brakes and took out the mailbox! This sent a shower of burning ashes and leaves raining on me!

I am FREAKING OUT, ON FIRE, and screaming and yelling like a berserker!!!!!!!!!

The jerk didn't even so much as slow down.

I'm trying to claw my way out of the bushes while beating out flames at the same time!!!! What fun!

I managed to escape with nothing but some singed hairs, small minor burns and smoky sooty clothes. I have no clue how I didn't burn half my face or hands off!

I now religously burn leaves in the back yard only.


So what do you think? I guess it's kind of funny when I visualize it after the fact. I know I probably shouldn't have been burning leaves by the road. It's not like I'm the only one though.

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My god! What is the matter with some people! Do they think its funny to drive straight at people? Man that sucks....

Glad you're OK man, you were lucky not to sustain serious burn-injury and you're right: burn leaves in the backyard from now on!! :D
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He was just trying to avoid hitting the other van, but what the hey did he think I was telling him to stop for? He looked like he thought I was going to mug him with the rake or something!

[ 11-10-2003, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: Sir Kenyth ]

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He figured you were a pyromaniac or something, so he made a run for it :D
After all, you *were* in the middel of a blazing inferno now [img]tongue.gif[/img]
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Hmmm. If I was gaming, Id say you survived the effects of 'incendiary cloud' and would recommend you buy armor with greater fire resistance at the next merchant. Then again if you were gaming, van driver would prbably have a 'great sword' suppository by now.

For the record, the guy driving the van was a Jerk. If you got a plate number, it would be up to you as to whether to report this as attempted murder or not. (Please keep in mind you'd have to admit to burning leaves too close to the road and would open yourself up to a fine. This weakens your case against the van driver. In reality, your best course of action is to curse his stupidity & move on.

I was using unsafe leaf burning practices. After I started the blaze, I was thinking about the hazard I was creating. First and last time I made that mistake! ;)

Also, remember to use kerosene as an accellerant and not gasoline! I watched a leaf burning incident with that as a kid. The adult nearly lost his eyebrows! :D You could hear the *WHOOOMP!!!!* sound a block away! The leaf pile blew out in a few directions! Kind of funny actually. At least it wasn't on the street! :D