Hello All!

I am a new member and the proud owner of a 2009 Accord EX-L V6, and look forward to learning from fellow members and hope also to be a useful contributor.

I wanted to share a recent experience on the highway in the hope that fellow members will find it somewhat helpful, and also ask a related question.

I was driving in an HOV lane recently, which I prefer to do when I am hauling my family. One of the reasons I used to prefer the HOV lane was that, except where the lane divider became dotted, vehicles are prohibited from crossing into or out of the HOV lane over the solid line, i.e. less hassle dealing with vehicles that dart in and out in front of you.

Well, this assumption was seriously tested about two weeks ago. I was cruising along, doing about 65 mph, when I noticed through the corner of my eye an SUV that was barreling straight into my car from the right while crossing over the solid line - i.e. unexpectedly. There was no signaling by the SUV; one moment it was next to me in the adjacent lane...next moment it was upon me.

There was no time to think. I hit the brakes and swerved sharply to the left to avoid collision, entering into the road shoulder in the process. Almost instantly, I had to swerve back to the right to avoid colliding with the concrete highway divider. In the stress of the moment, I might have overdone the swerve to the right as I found myself busily correcting my course back to a straight line, but fortunately stayed within my lane throughout this process. In the mean time, the SUV had zoomed ahead.

I was lucky in two respects. First, I was able to swerve into the road shoulder rather than another traffic lane. Second, the car behind me had the good sense not to tailgate, so that it had enough room to brake and slow down while I was busy trying to avoid bodily harm.

Lesson learned: my driver's ed teacher from decades ago was right - one should always practice defensive driving and not rest on the assumption that other drivers will abide by traffic rules. There are simply some drivers out there who are either too asinine or dumb to be trusted to follow the rules where it matters.

The other observation I would make is that I was fairly happy with the performance of my Accord during this incident. The steering was responsive and precise - something I've always liked about my Accord. The suspension, which can seem harsh on occasion when I am ripping through expansion joints or bumps, seemed firmly in control as I engaged in the emergency maneuver.

The model I drive has been panned by some critics as being too large and unwieldy, but I feel that, for a car with spacious interiors, my car is quite agile. The only question I have is whether the steering is a bit too light. I suppose that cuts both ways. The light steering helped me respond very quickly to the offending SUV, but also seemed to lend itself to an exaggerated response during the emergency maneuver while the adrenaline was rushing. I guess you've got to take the benefits with the burden in case of the light steering, until the engineers invent a "smart" steering system that can calibrate its power assist to the immediate situation at hand.

BTW, my wife, who was sitting next to me, scribbled down the SUV's license plate number on her arm (there being no paper available). I had intended to report the incident to the authorities, so that the offending driver could, for the sake of other innocents, be removed from the road - at least for a while. Unfortunately, the scribbling on her arm became smudged, and we could no longer make out the number with complete certainty. I can only hope that the SUV driver might have learned a bit from this incident as well so that she will not pose a hazard to other drivers, passengers or pedestrians.

I'd welcome your thoughts and reactions, especially on the question of whether the steering in the Accord is in fact on the light side, in your experience.

Best.

 

There's a thread by someone who had a smaller car that he had done some suspension tweaking. Had a family, bought an Accord, then went autocrossing. He said the whole experience was heavy & wallowing.

OTOH, a guy here at work has an Accord and a Camry. He complains the Accord is too stiff & the Camry is comfortable. Ya CANNOT please everyone...

It's relatively responsive, but it's not a sports car.

Steering while braking is a tough skill to learn. The rear wheels get unweighted & the car oversteers. It's not that the steering was too light, it's that YOU probably never had felt what happens when you steer & brake-hard at the same time.

Congratulations for avoiding a collision.

 

Jim:

Thanks for your insight about doing hard braking and steering at the same time. I had not considered that before but will keep that in mind. You are right that I am not used to doing hard braking and steering at the same time, and I hope that I won't have to do it much in the future.

 

Hi New Member...
Thanks to your quick thinking you are alive and are on our forum.

WheelBrokerAng

 

I agree with JimBlake, you have not experienced this before and it may have seemed that your car overcorrected. I have driven several accords and have had a few run ins with aggressive drivers. My response is to brake hard and let ABS do its business while I have a death grip on the steering wheel. I stay within my lanes, I do not try to swerve since I know that the Brakes on the Accords are very good and that I would rather have someone hit me while im still moving than hit a solid non moving object, since the impacts are not the same. This comes from living in a big city for a few years (MIAMI) and dealing with a few accidents. Accords are pretty agile beasts, no matter what people say. Its a sedan, it behaves like one. You cant have it all, but Accords are predictable, and thats what I like about them

 

Thanks WheelBrokerAng.

Zirda:

You raise an interesting point. I've replayed the incident in my mind a number of times, as you might expect. One thought is, if I had traffic lanes on both sides, I probably would have been much more hesitant to swerve to avoid the oncoming SUV. I might in that situation brake hard and, as you said, steady the steering wheel and hope for the best. On the other hand, that SUV traveling at high speed could have still knocked me into an adjacent traffic lane. I guess there is no single right answer...makes me wish I could have reported that SUV driver to the authorities. She could have caused multiple collisions with that type of mindless driving. It bothers me a lot to think that she could still be out there posing risks to other drivers. Thanks.

 

You're right, there's NO single "right" answer. If you start practicing very VERY hard braking, just to see how your steering behaves, that usually attracts the attention of the guys with flashing lights on their cars.

It's good that you had the presence of mind to recognize the empty shoulder. (empty lane, or whatever). You did good by not panicking & freezing up.

 

Thanks, JimBlake, for all the advice. Have a great week-end.