Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Western Canada i'm very grateful today

On my way thru Slave Lake Provincial Park to the beach, doing about 100km/h on the secondary highway a black bear decides to commit suicide. Runs from between the tall grass in the ditch across the highway leaving me less than a second to react. I wasnâ�?��?�t drive the Contour, I was in my sister BMW â�?��?a 325ix AWDâ�?� with my wife in the passenger seat and my sis in the back. My only reaction was to hit the brakes, the ABS didnâ�?��?�t work and the brakes locked up. Luckily there was no one in the opposite lane so I swerved into it and started sliding sideways as I miss the bear within inches. As this is going on all I can think off is my wife and my baby â�?��?she is 7.5 months pregnantâ�?�.
Once and all was done I was parked in the opposite lane facing the opposite direction I came from.
I���?�m glad I haven���?�t bought an SUV or was driving my work truck because I did two 90 deg sideway skids back to back and one full 180. I���?�m grateful I didn���?�t hit the bear or the ditch; I don���?�t want to imagine how bad this could���?�ve been. Now I���?�m more and more against purchasing high centered SUVs as a family vehicle, an AWD car will be on the top of my list.

wow, very lucky, i'm glad nobody got hurt, that must of been heart stopping.

i couldn't believe how fast it happened!
my wife was freaking out and i wasn't, i was cool headed and in charge but scared sickless about her. i didn't know if she was going thru a panic attach or she was hurt from the seatbelt pulling on her stomach.
everybody is doing fine now but man i do know how a parent feels like. we ended the long weekend with thankful prayers and a new look at life.

yeah lots of prayers. i know when it happens it;s just like you see in slow motion but then again it's not, it just happens so fast,

I am very glad to here that you and your family are O.k. Thank God for that. It is heart stopping to go through something like this. As for your opinion on SUVS I can only agree with you more and yes an all wheel drive vehicle would be more feasable for a family.

Wow man, that's nuts, I've had a few close calls like that and also couldn't be more thankful of the tight handling of a nice sedan. I admire SUV's for their capbilities, but I would never trade the good handling for anything, so much safer to drive when you get into situations like you describe...you could even be as bold to say that the car saved your life!

The car did save our lives but the wheels shouldn't have locked up, I should have been able to manuver around the bear with the ABS doing their job. Once the brakes locked up and the car went sideways I had no choice but to steer the car and keep it on the road as it fish tailed.
This coming weekend I'll have to take it in for an inspection, the ABS light is on now.
whats amazing half an hour before all this happened I noticed one of the tires was low so I stopped at a gas station to check the tires: both front were 40psi , left rear was arouned 20, and the right rear was 10psi
I barely drive my sister's car and she didn't know how to check them. So during the drive before this incident happened I was explaining how the car feels when the tires are low and how important it is to check and keep the tires at 32psi. I don't think she will forget this advice and to check her tires before going on the highway.

No kidding, that's bad! I got one of those little keychain digital tire gauges and make sure to check every so often to be sure. Especially with low pro tires too becuase if I had a flat there's very little visual difference.

Was the ABS light on before the miss? Actually sounds like what happenned with my Mom's Contour, she hit the brakes hard and engaged the ABS and the fuse blew. I think there's something in the Common probs about that somewhere even...but not something you'd expect to happen to a bimmer, anyways, eh?