It was a rainy day in NJ. My brother and I decited that It may be a good Idea to head to up town to meet up with friends dispite the rainy conditions. One of these firends that we meet up with we will call, "Bruce" Bruce was cool he was the only oriental that I knew of, in my little town in NJ that could ride a stut bike preety well and was a very funny indiviual. After a time of talking and watching him set car alarms off with his Stunt bike it was getting late. I looked at my watch it was 9:45Pm My brother and I had had a 10'O'clock curfew. (My parents took the its ten do you know were your children are thing way too seriously.) Since we dident want to get into trouble and surly walking home would take too long and we would miss our curfew. "Bruce" came up with a great idea he exclamed " how about I give both of you a ride home on my bike." But he also added that his brakes were not to par becouse they were practily worn down to nothing. Dispite the unfortunet condition of his brakes. I thought to myself this would be fun and ontop of that we would indeed make it home on time. So me and my brother agreed. Well for thoses of you whom my not know excatly what a stunt bike is I will give you a a brief discription. A stunt bike is a small bike used for preforming stunts it has small tires for mobility and the front tire spin 360 degress. also the bike has four metal prongs on the tires for sliding arross a curb. anyway back to my story. We used theres prongs to stand on My brother In the back standing with his hands on the drivers shoulders. (as i thought this was the safest second to only the bike seat) and I in the frout standing and facing the driver. ( and effectively decressing his visablility). Now off we go down the road. My first observations in are little experiment were the following truisms: 1) if eather me or my brother shift our body whight to far to eather side we will fall. 2) If the driver dose not keep a steady and more or less straite ride it will coause point 1 to happen and we will fall and finaly point 3) the rain is making it difficalt to avoid point 1) becouse the rain makes the metal prongs slipery. It was all fun and games untill we come to an obsticale: A steep long hill. (thats why I said we walked UP town) we now have some options to consider: the steep hilly road has a fork at the end there is also a meadian along the road deviding the right and left lains. the left side of the street leads to a straite long road that will give us ample time to slow down the only problem is that we would have to go AGAINST traffic and a head on colition was voted (but considederd) to much of a risk. (the side walk by the way was in a decrepid state and beaouse we needed a smother surfice the side walk would not have been an option not to metion we would have killed ourselfs as we knew that me would be going aobut 30 Mph.) so the last option was of course the right side of the road, only problem with this is that we would have to deal with an other obstical at the bottom of the hill, a traffic light. Well we took our chances dispite all of the odds staked agaist us and venturd down the hill going about as fast as traffic as we passed some cars. Estemated speed 35 to 40 mhp. We nearly meet a catastrophy at one poit as my borther almost sliped off the bike caousing a sudden shift of whight to the left side. Fortuetly he regainded his balence and we were able to stablize. but our problems were far from over; remember the traffic light i was talking about It had now turned red according to the driver we could not stop so we did the only thing we could do ignore it and keep the coarce. We cleard the traffic light without incident but our luck was about to run out. A lady driving a mini-van was puling out of a gas station this we could not avoid. I took one look be hid me and braced for impact Im sure my brother and Bruce did the same. we slam into the mini van. I am brifly in the air and land ontop of the hood. As I lie there I see my brother fliying through the air over my head and clearing the hood. the next thing I remember is getting up and our firend Bruce Yelling RUN!!! we run away and collaps on the safety of someones lawn out of pure extostion. I later find out that the only reason we dident end up with broken bones and my brother and I slaming into the mini van instead of over it, was becouse of his quick thinking. He amimed the froint tire of our bike to the frount tire of the mini van cousing us to bump into the front tire insead of CRASHING into the side of the mini van effectivly saving use from a hopital visit. (BY the way we still made it home ontime)

Submitted on 08/28/2006

Submitted by: Jose
Reference: some time on summer brake

Copyright © 2006 DarwinAwards.com

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
A heart-stopping escape from serious injury indeed! Yes, quick thinking saved ALL of you. And I like the fact that you made it back on time, too! I DO hope your friend gets new brake pads, however! Thanks for submitting, it was a great story!

Sheryl said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Thanks for the story, Jose. I'll let this sqeak past but I'm neutral on it. (Note: No offence, but a spell check would have helped this story immensely.)

Fitzroy said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Yeah, my main reservation here (apart from a sense there is an age issue) is literary quality. As is, the story is kind of a hard read. However, its content is clearly quality Personal Account stuff, and I don't want to put up a roadblock for style alone.

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