I think we have all had those scary experiences. My worst one ever was outside of Montreal on a rainy day. A small semi was sideswiped by a car and it tore the gas tank (yes, gas, not diesel) off the side of it and sent it tumbling thru the air right at me. I took the ditch and it ended up about 10 feet from the side of my car - right where I would have been. The worst part - a local cop set a flare in front of it which I picked up and threw in the puddle in the ditch my car was occupying. The cop was PO'd (didn't speak English) until I showed him the hole in the tank still draining the 50 or so gallons of gas.

I guess I was lucky when I had my 'bucket - the only real pant cleaning episode was losing my brakes at Syracuse when I popped a non-DOT braided front steel brake line. This new car has Russell DOT braided steel lines.