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Out Ronnie Dee (c) Copyright 2026 by Ronnie Dee 
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 Photo by Dextar Vision on Unsplash |
This one may have been the most puzzling encounter of all. It was 1970, I still had my 340 Duster, and as always, I was zooming down the Watterson Xway one early evening when I almost missed my turn off at Breckenridge Lane. I guess I was just daydreaming, which was nothing new for me, and I swerved onto the ramp, but turned too sharply and began to spin. A bad driving mistake by me. I don't know how fast I was going, but I was sliding down the ramp going around and around real fast. There wasn't anything I could do but release the accelerator and sit there watching the scenery flashing by. I kept on spinning for what seemed a long time, when the car slipped off the ramp and went rolling backwards across the grass. I hit the brakes and then it kept on sliding until it slammed abruptly, and with great force, into a large light standard, a very tall metal pole embedded in concrete. At least it had stopped and I was all right.
I had spun out only once before, years earlier on Preston Highway. The guy in front of me suddenly stopped and I had to hit my brakes. It had recently rained and I quickly spun a couple of times and ended up in the opposite lane facing the other way. I just drove down the street and turned around to continue the way I had been going in the first place.
This time I sat there for a few minutes, absorbing what had just happened when I saw a police car stop on the ramp. There were two officers in the car and one of them got out and walked back up the ramp. The other one drove over to where I sat. He left the car and came over to me and asked if I was OK. I assured him I was and got out of my car to assess the damage.
Man! It was really screwed up. It had hit the pole dead center in the rear end and drove the pole way up into the trunk. The back of the car had buckled up to where it looked like it was going downhill. We looked for the other officer and saw him way up the ramp, waving at us. The guy with me said, "Damn, is that where you started spinning?"
I could only say, "Yeah, I guess it was."
He just shook his head and we waited for his pardner to come down.
"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have tried to turn in there," I casually remarked.
"My God, look at your car. Think it'll start?"
"I don't know," I said.
"I'll check it," he said and got in. It kicked off right away.
I was thinking, "well, here's where I get in trouble," but much to my surprise and delight, he asked if I lived nearby. I gave him my address, which was only about a half-mile from the scene. He said that he would drive my car and follow the two of us in the cruiser.
So I got in the front seat of the police car with the other officer and we drove to my apartment. We got home with no problems and when he got out and handed me the keys, he advised: "Ronald, if you can get your car fixed, I think you should try to take it a little easier out there. If you had hit that concrete thing at any other angle except where you did, you might not be here."
I told him I would, and off they went. I couldn't believe how nice they had been, but I was very grateful for their kindness. I still can hardly believe that they were so nice to me and didn't press any kind of charges.
However, I did not heed his advice. It took two weeks to repair my car and things went OK for about three months. Then, one night at about 2:30, I was headed home on Bardstown Road, when this guy goaded me into a race. We took off and were about even when he suddenly veered in toward me to avoid some street construction, causing me to swerve sharply to my right, and I might have been OK except for the telephone pole.
Whammo! I hit it head on and broke it in half and ruined my Duster for good.
I had downed a few beers and again, I don't know how come I wasn't arrested. I busted my lip pretty good and had to pay for a new telephone pole. I still owed $1,000 or so on the car and I think the pole cost about $240. But in thinking about it, I was lucky the pole broke because I hit it square head-on and by breaking it, I avoided the full impact of the collision if it had held fast.
I
hated saying goodbye to the Duster, but I guess I just wasn't mature
enough to be driving a car with that kind of ability.