Landmine!

[repsac]

Reading the driving posts reminded me of this story from my father.

At the time, we lived out in the boondocks, and had to drive about fifteen miles to reach town. Needless to say, trash was a common problem, primarily boxes. I'm not sure what people thought they were doing, tossing the stuff out, but it wasn't uncommon to have to swerve to miss a box as the wind blew it across the road.

One day, my father comes home and he's laughing fit to be tied. This, is his story:

While coming through the prison farm, he comes to a corner. Standing in the middle of the oncoming lane is this case of coke. (think 24 pack type box) It's standing perfectly on edge like someone set it there. As he approaches it, a mini van coming the opposite way moves not to pass the box, but to run it over. Yes, things like that do make a satisfying smush. The guy in the van hit the box square on, but it wasn't empty. In fact the box must have been completely full. There's this loud BANG! Which is quickly followed by an explosion of soda out from under the car. Dad always said that the van must have raised off the ground a good six inches and then skidded off the road onto the shoulder before coming back on. I myself never saw this, however I do wonder if the driver had to change his underwear after that...

[Cyphr]

What a waste of coke!!! :cry:

[Broomjockey]

I dunno, seems a fitting use of that gut-rot. Pepsi fo' lif!

[Geek King]

And that, kids, is why you should always avoid debris while driving, if it is safe to do so. Never know what may be in there.

[PepperElf]

Standing in the middle of the oncoming lane is this case of coke. (think 24 pack type box)
at least it wasn't the other kind. would be hard to explain to the cops if their sniffer dogs ever wandered by... heh. ;)

[Rahmota]

Bummer. All you needed was some Rum and thats the making of a good time.

My worst debris tale comes from ohio interstate 275 around cincinnati. I was flying up the inside lane and wondered why the traffic was suddenly doing all these wierd manouvers when I finally got up to the place I found out why. There was a bed in the middle of the lane. I wound up having to swerve around and go into the grass to avoid it. Seriously a bed set up and sitting there like it just rolled off the back of the truck or something. That would have to be an interesting call to the insurance company to explain that one.

[digilight]

Does a tire bouncing done the highway count?

We were on our way back from Laughlin Nevada a few years back and saw a car being towed. A few seconds later we see one of the tires that was up in the air come bouncing done the freeway at us making us swerve to avoid it. Yup the axel broke while in the air. Luckily there was no accident as traffic was extremely light at the time and they pulled over and retrieved the tire and all was fine.

[CorDarei]

i've almost hit a cow one night.... doing 55 down a darkened stretch of country road and a black cow is just standing in the middle of the road(actually 3 of them) i was probably lucky to stop in time... honked and they mosied on their way.

one time before that, thanksgiving eve, i'm driving home and i see these glowing eyes in the middle of the road (again, country road, no lights, dark) so i slow down... sure enough, it's a horse (we were near some horse ranches)

other times, have been plain stuff, mattresses, couches, planks of wood, etc etc etc.

[draftermatt]

Just got onto the Baltimore Beltway from the Baltimore-Washington Expressway to find a wheel barrow in the middle of the 2nd right lane (4 lane highway)

[XCashier]

My worst road debris story had the vehicle in front of me kicking it up into the air.

We were driving down I-10 in Arizona, 75 MPH (the speed limit), in the vicinity of Casa Grande. The truck in front of us kicked up a huge chunk of metal and sent it flying. By the time we saw it, it hit our car. It tore up the hood and bonnet, destroyed the left windshield wiper, smashed the windshield, went through the steering wheel and stopped about five inches from skewering me.

It was a couple of pieces of steel bolted together, about three feet long. The mechanics who replaced our windshield identified it as a mud flap bracket. Had it not been bent on the end and caught the window frame, I would not be here to tell you about this. Nearly everyone we told this to said that God had been watching out for us, and I believe He was.

[cool2batroll]

I use to be an escort driver years ago (before you get all happy on the word escort there I 'escorted' wide load trucks to their destination and thats it lol). When I was driving back home through Georgia (I live in SC) from Florida I came around a big curve in the road and you know those huge green metal signs they have on the side of the road saying stuff like how many miles to each of the next 5 exits? There was one crumpled up and sitting in the road in the left lane of the two lanes on my side. I started to slow down because I was just amazed that something could have even done that to the sign and thats when I realized I was driving beside (to my right) the tornado that had ripped it down and crumpled it up. Needless to say I floored it and got out of there. It was kinda cool to see one that close up though. :p

[Becks]

I dunno, seems a fitting use of that gut-rot. Pepsi fo' lif!

I wholeheartedly agree!!!

:ot: I think that on MySpace I'm a member of a Pepsi-lover's group. :lol:

[Gurndigarn]

I managed to smash a bed across I-15 between Salt Lake and Provo... the weekend before university started. Once traffic stopped, it took us less than four seconds to clear the debris. We were motivated.

[blas87]

I see trash all the time on the roads, going to and from work. It's disgusting how careless and piggish people are.

The other night, a KFC bag nearly flew right onto my windshield.

I remember one early summer day in 2004, when I still worked at the grocery store, there was a storm a brewin', and the winds were so gusty that garbage cans were knocked over, and garbage was blowing ALL over the mini-mall!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Years ago, when I was in community college, I had taken a class on weather and climate (Most fun I had in a college course and looking back I regret not considering majoring in geography or meteorology because I am kind of a weather geek). One night we took a field trip to the National Weather Service office in Green Bay to tour the facility and see a weather balloon getting launched.

It happened to be a very very windy day. So windy that the wind actually pulled up a bedliner out of a pickup truck in front of us and sent it flying right in front of our teacher's van and into a farmer's field.

It is very fortunate that didn't cause an accident.

[tsar]

This is not my story, but my grandfathers.

Back in time in the late 1940's, when my father was but a sparkle in my granpas eyes, my grandfather used to drive a truck. The truck he drove was used mainly for delivery of sand to buildsites, and as thus was quite big for the era. With size came also the abilities to steer, decelerate and accelerate oh-not-so quickly.

Then while driving a relatively short multi-load delivery of sand, he noticed on the opposite lane some small boys, maybe aged 10-12, running pulling a seemingly empty cardboard box with some ropes. He came back to another direction about ten minutes later, this time with full load onboard. From some distance away he again spotted the kids, and chose to honk a few times to get them out of the way because the truck wouldn't have been able to stop anymore before them. The boys looked up from whatever they were up to, and ran to side of the road leaving the cardboard box on the lane, whilst signaling to my granpa to "smash it." He was about to, but as the road was clear he decided not to and to steer around it. It was a somewhat difficult, but manageable task. He told me that he was doing about 70kph at the time, and just as the box went out of his front view - the box opened, and yet another small boy maybe 6-8yo, peeked out of it. Only few tenths of a second later he watched from his rearview mirror as the kid jumped out of the box and joined the other gang.

He once told me, few months before his (sudden) death, that eventhough nothing happened, he still had occasional nightmares about the situation, over half a century later. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic, and he was as good a driver as he was, since the abilities of the truck to steer at the speed were severely limited.

[Becks]

Tsar, like your grandfather, I think I might have nightmares from that.

That's just...:wtf:

[Cyphr]

first who tells someone run over their friend... second heres my story

Many years ago my father built a small light duty trailer him self maybe capable of 1000- 1500lb load. This was build many years ago before safety chains were mandatory on trailers. The thing had rusted over the years but was still intact then one day we're hauling the empty trailer on the interstate and all of a sudden my father looked in the read view mirror and saw out trailer skittering into the right hand lane and into the shoulder. :lol: this all happened when i was about 6 making it about 12 years ago. luckily traffic was light that day

[coldcupofjoe]

I ran over a mannequin one time. It was late, it was dark, I was exhuasted and i thought i had run over some naked guy lying in the middle of the road until I picked it up. That freaked the hell out of me. I still have that mannequin somewhere.

[VenomX]

i've almost hit a cow one night.... doing 55 down a darkened stretch of country road and a black cow is just standing in the middle of the road(actually 3 of them) i was probably lucky to stop in time... honked and they mosied on their way.

one time before that, thanksgiving eve, i'm driving home and i see these glowing eyes in the middle of the road (again, country road, no lights, dark) so i slow down... sure enough, it's a horse (we were near some horse ranches)

other times, have been plain stuff, mattresses, couches, planks of wood, etc etc etc.

A local guy was killed hitting a cow while on his motorcycle just last month. It was dark and he came around the curve and there it was.

[PCGameGuy]

Okay, so the missus and I are following a tourist car, with the bikes on the roof. THey had the rack set up with four bikes, and four front tires in the slots. (Tires off of the bikes). As we follow, we notice one of the wheels is jiggling, so we flash the lights at them and honk. No effect. We try again, same result. Then we swerve as the tire comes off at 50 MPH and starts bouncing at us. :) We watched it bounce in the rearview a couple times, then settle down to rolling until the road curved and it went off. Next two miles, flashing, honking, no answer. They turned off, and I bet they were very disappointed to find their $xxx.xx mountain bike was a unicycle. :)


The other tale was from a buddy of mine in the miitary, way back when. We both worked for a pizza place for extra cash, doing deliveries. He was out on a delivery, and came back with the biggest s*&t eating grin I've ever seen. Turns out, he was on the freeway, and the rooftop sign (which the owner was to cheap to keep in good repair) flew off the top of his car. No big deal, sign hits road, big mess, over? Nope. :) See, there was a big rig following him. Sign hits road, bounces up, and big rig hits it full speed. He said it was like watching a ballon of confetti, one minute sign, next minute nothing but tiny plastic pieces filling the air. :) Rig driver honked and gave him a thumbs up, so all was good except we lost that sign that scratched your roof up.

[Seshat]

first who tells someone run over their friend

I have a mobility scooter. One day, shortly after I got it, my honourary niece and I were coming back from the shops.

She LOVED the scooter, and really wanted a go. Unfortunately, I can't walk very far, so I couldn't let her take my place for long. Being a softie, I did a couple of times - but this isn't about those times.

I also let her play with the controls a bit - she could run the accelerator on long, smooth straight sections where I could see there was noone coming.

. . . and she pushed the accelerator lever while her foot was in front of the back tyre.

Yes, I ran over my own niece's foot!


Fortunately, she was wearing her school shoes. Tough leather completely encasing the foot. Fortunately, the scooter is light enough, and the tyres wide enough, that while she was hurt, there was no lasting damage. (Yes, I checked her foot immediately, then eased her shoe back on as the only available splinting device until we got home.)

She got her ride. On my lap, while I took us home very carefully.

[Broomjockey]

Yes, I ran over my own niece's foot!

Fortunately, she was wearing her school shoes. Tough leather completely encasing the foot. Fortunately, the scooter is light enough, and the tyres wide enough, that while she was hurt, there was no lasting damage. (Yes, I checked her foot immediately, then eased her shoe back on as the only available splinting device until we got home.)

She got her ride. On my lap, while I took us home very carefully.

My foot was run over by a car back when I was in high school.

Shoe was a write-off, but my foot was barely sore.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Hah! A motor scooter over a foot? A car ran over my dad's legs when he was 6. It wasn't the driver's fault; she was backing up this land yacht, my dad came running up, saw her but slid on the gravel when he tried to stop. She panicked & hit the brakes, parking the car on his legs.

Damage? Bruises. Although, it may be part of the blame for the fact that he had bowlegs until he got his knees replaced.

I myself ran over a length of chrome, despite my efforts to swerve. Poked a hole in my tire, too. Nice person behind me honked to let me know that my tire was going flat before I destroyed the tire by driving it flat.

[Jack7957]

Didn't run over it, but I was on the Long Island Expressway and saw a driveshaft (the part that connects the engine to the transmission) come off a large box truck while he was driving down the road in front of us. The axle rolled off to the side while the truck coasted to a stop. Funny thing was the driver and gone flying by us just a couple minutes earlier.