shifting from neutral

in or around 1998 i had an experience driving three friends and myself home the morning after a late night thunderstorm climbing trip in which i shifted the automatic transmission of my friend ben's 1982 honda accord into neutral while descending a long hill at 70 mph. in an attempt to shift back into Drive, i inappropriately moved the shifter toward Reverse. though the car moved forward at 70 mph while in Reverse for only a brief moment, the error was sufficient to do two things: it burned enough rubber off the front tires without even a glimmer of brake light to convince my tailgater t'was in his best interest to leave me a little more room and it converted a significant portion of the honda's internal transmission componentry into small pieces of ferrous debris. i spent a day, a sweatshirt and a couple hundred bucks laying the deceased to rest and replacing it with a salvage tranny.
cleverly embedded life lesson: shifting from neutral may result in an inappropriate reversal that can swiftly destroy one's means of moving forward.