Late night at Yahoo! tonight, bumming around until Ammy was done with work, so we could go grab some dinner. Anyhow, dinner and a few games of air hockey later, I was driving home at around 10 pm. Driving on 237 east to the 880 junction, traffic suddenly screeched to a halt. the car in front of me was going 30 on the overpass right before the fork to the right to cloverleaf down into the freeway below and suddenly it was stopped, with me about two carlengths behind.

I slam the brake, trying to stop close to his bumper, to minimize the chance of my car losing traction, and to maximize the space for the car behind me. (I think about this kind of thing a lot, ever since I stopped with plenty of room just after the Bay Bridge four years ago and the car behind me slammed into my 3 month old car, resulting in a $13,000 repair bill (for a $16,000 car) and a few thousand in medical bills (for me. The other driver was fine, and the car (uninsured) that he was driving (without a license) wasn't even his).) Anyhow, I'm watching the rear-view for the car behind me, just waiting for the slam that doesn't come, and as I let my guard down I hear a screech-slam! of the car two behind me crashing into the car behind me. Then the car in front of me moves and I see that he didn't stop suddenly so much as he was stopped by the impact when he hit the car in front of him.

So basically, five cars: I'm car three, the middle car. Car one stops, car two hits car one. Car three (me) stops in time. Car five hits car four, and I'm the only one off scott free. Meanwhile car one decides to stop mostly in the lane, instead of getting off the bridge, to survey the damage, oblivious to the chain reaction that did and may still be going on behind cars four and five.

I wouldn't know. I got out of there, with flashes of What Dreams May Come and a Good Samaritan who got caught up in the midst of an ongoing accident going through my head.

The impacts were slow enough that I doubt anyone was seriously hurt, but blar.