I'd like to say this is the result of a personal Declaration of Independence. In reality, it was more of a personal Moment of Stupidity. Let me explain.
My wife and I ordered our first (foreshadowing) Model S in early 2012 and received one of the last 2012 VINs with our S85 being delivered in January 2013. We LOVE it. So much so, that two weeks later we placed a reservation for a Model X from the touchscreen of the Model S. (That definitely beats going to a dealership!) We sold my wife's 11 year-old Lexus RX and kept my 12 year-old BMW 5 series to tide us over the two year wait. Other than constantly fighting over who gets to drive the Model S, all was going swimmingly.
Then a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to buy a very early sequenced Model S. After a little soul searching, we jumped in and bought it. We expect its arrival within the next couple weeks or so. We had decided to limit miles on it and thus were going to keep the BMW. Until Monday morning.
Tired, overworked, in a hurry, and generally not paying attention, I barreled into the San Antonio airport parking garage about 50 minutes before my plane's departure on Monday morning. Flat dawn light, drizzly, parking deck and median of similar color, old eyes, failing mind all conspired to entice me to try cut diagonally across the parking lot to the nearest space to the terminal.
That was a big mistake.
You can sort of see that the first and third rows of parking have medians with bent yellow pipe bollards and a fire extinguisher cabinet, but the second one doesn't (in the photo, it has my roller bag.) In a hurry, distracted, and just plain stupid, I cut diagonally across that median. I was probably going 10-15 miles per hour, not slow enough to stop. After two big 'bams', straightened in the lane and looked in my rear view mirror. "What a coincidence", I thought, " there is a dark stripe in the pavement exactly aligned with my car." Then I smelled the gas, and then I realized I needed to get out of that car right away. In addition to the concrete median, there was also a steel base plate with four bolts protruding from it. One or more of those bolts proceeded to rip open my fuel lines and/or rupture the bottom of my tank.
I pulled right into a spot, got out with my bag, and ran 100 feet from the car, waiting for the inevitable explosion (I was really ready to make a Youtube video too, don't think the irony of all that didn't actually pop into my mind right then.) But the car didn't go up in flames, and why I don't know - divine intervention - but proceeded to empty the entire contents of the gas tank onto the parking deck. Not drip, not leak, but pretty much spew gas everywhere. I called 911, the airport police and fire departments came right away - BTW, they were great! I called my wife, and then sort of stood there as they spread kitty litter over the gas to absorb it, though about half of it had evaporated or absorbed in the few minutes it took for them to arrive.
After about 10 minutes, the fire guy said the situation was under control, I could try and catch my plane. I sprinted into the terminal, got to the counter 25 minutes before my scheduled departure, the dork (sorry) at USAir wouldn't give me a boarding pass because of the 30-minute rule. But luckily I remembered printing it the day before. i flew through security, sprinted to the gate and made my plane. My very sweet wife took care of the tow to the collision shop, the insurance claim, and finishing up with the fire and police guys. She remarked afterwards that it was sort of remarkable in a 9/11 way that they let me leave the car before she got there, which is really true, but that saved me from a cascade of missed flights and appointments. So a massive thanks to her and to them for bailing me out of my own stupidity.
After my pulse settled down, the potential history of the situation settled in - with our recent purchase of another Model S, was that the last tank of gas I'll ever purchase? Gushing out on the upper deck of the San Antonio airport parking garage? Sad? Ironic? Fitting? Certainly Lucky. Lucky it chose to evaporate over 15 minutes and not 15/100 of a second.
Here's to an all electric present and future.
My wife and I ordered our first (foreshadowing) Model S in early 2012 and received one of the last 2012 VINs with our S85 being delivered in January 2013. We LOVE it. So much so, that two weeks later we placed a reservation for a Model X from the touchscreen of the Model S. (That definitely beats going to a dealership!) We sold my wife's 11 year-old Lexus RX and kept my 12 year-old BMW 5 series to tide us over the two year wait. Other than constantly fighting over who gets to drive the Model S, all was going swimmingly.
Then a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to buy a very early sequenced Model S. After a little soul searching, we jumped in and bought it. We expect its arrival within the next couple weeks or so. We had decided to limit miles on it and thus were going to keep the BMW. Until Monday morning.
Tired, overworked, in a hurry, and generally not paying attention, I barreled into the San Antonio airport parking garage about 50 minutes before my plane's departure on Monday morning. Flat dawn light, drizzly, parking deck and median of similar color, old eyes, failing mind all conspired to entice me to try cut diagonally across the parking lot to the nearest space to the terminal.
That was a big mistake.
I pulled right into a spot, got out with my bag, and ran 100 feet from the car, waiting for the inevitable explosion (I was really ready to make a Youtube video too, don't think the irony of all that didn't actually pop into my mind right then.) But the car didn't go up in flames, and why I don't know - divine intervention - but proceeded to empty the entire contents of the gas tank onto the parking deck. Not drip, not leak, but pretty much spew gas everywhere. I called 911, the airport police and fire departments came right away - BTW, they were great! I called my wife, and then sort of stood there as they spread kitty litter over the gas to absorb it, though about half of it had evaporated or absorbed in the few minutes it took for them to arrive.
After my pulse settled down, the potential history of the situation settled in - with our recent purchase of another Model S, was that the last tank of gas I'll ever purchase? Gushing out on the upper deck of the San Antonio airport parking garage? Sad? Ironic? Fitting? Certainly Lucky. Lucky it chose to evaporate over 15 minutes and not 15/100 of a second.
Here's to an all electric present and future.
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