Dangit, man!

It was a beautiful week -- great weather, an impromptu beach trip with The Lovely Girlfriend, a visit with the parents, and a lot of good meals. And then we took a "gator bite."


Not my pic, but the slab looked about like this.

On the drive home yesterday afternoon, "the Waze lady" made her announcement: "Watch out. Object on road ahead."
Well, that was great, but what she couldn't tell us was which of the five lanes on I-40 held the hazard. I found out a moment later, when the road gator popped out from under the truck in front of me. It hit my car with a resounding "THUNK!" and caused me to blurt out something Mom wouldn't have been proud of me for. I looked in the rearview and saw that big ol' slab of rubber smack the truck behind me, leaving a huge black mark on its nice white bumper cover.

Once we got to a reasonable place for pulling over, I took a look at the damage.


The black cover you see touching the concrete spans the width of the car. It's ruined, for sure. The lower grille is broken, the fog light has vanished, and there's a pair of serious cracks in the car's "nose cone." I contacted my insurance agent, tied up the black plastic piece the best I could, and hit the road again. For about a half-mile. Lesson 1: keep some paracord or 3-foot zip ties in the car, for that gauze material in the "oh-no backpack" definitely isn't suitable for tying up loose auto body parts, even when layered.

Lesson 2: What IS a suitable thing to have in the vehicles permanently is a Leatherman tool. I couldn't break loose the fasteners that hold that black plastic piece in place, but the blade was suitable for just cutting the darned thing off altogether. It was ruined already, right? A couple more cuts/holes in it weren't going to hurt anything.

On the remainder of the drive I got to thinking about the amount of tire debris on the roads lately. In years past, these road gators were always attributed to retread tires. Some reading I've done this morning seems to indicate that these stray slabs aren't always from retreads, and that one particular NHTSA study concluded that 78% of these hazards are from new tires. It's interesting reading, really.

I had plenty more road time ahead of me last night, and got to thinking a bit more. Quick math says I've driven something like 800 thousand miles so far, and I've seen a ton of these things on the roads. I've been able to straddle or sway around a lot of them, and I guess it was just my turn to take one straight-on. (I also realized this is part of why I haven't ridden a motorcycle in about three years.) But in further thinking, and watching the road for the rest of the trip home, it seemed like there are lots more of these slabs on the road or shoulders lately. Are more tires coming apart lately, or is there just less cleanup effort taking place? I don't know.

Anyway, it certainly could have been a far worse result, and the rest of the road trip was pretty uneventful. Time to get on with calls to the insurance adjuster and body shop....

Yeah that sucks. Just be glad you weren't on a motorcycle.

It’s the reason why I rent a car and opt for the optional insurance coverage any and every time I go on a road trip of any distance. The shit on the road can bust up the rental to shit. The rental will cost less than my deductible. Add in depreciation and it’s a no brainer.

Motorcycle, is mostly local in the rural twisty farm roads but I sport tourer occasionally. But we always take the rural highways and don’t ride at night. Riding around tar snakes is pretty easy on a bike if practicing SIPDE. In a cage, road debris many times, is absolutely unavoidable. It sucks.

People have no personal accountability anymore. I’ve seen furniture, all sorts of shit in the road that I’d pull onto a service road, call road assistance or the Police, in some attempt to remove my tire tread, my debris, removed. But people don’t care about other people in today’s society. They care about themselves only, and many of them don’t even give a shit about their own vehicle, etc. They sure as shit care about that damn phone though. Their whole lives revolve around it.

Down here we have two different types of road alligators... 1st we have the specis that your photo and posting describe...2nd we have the real live live alligators to contend with... And sometimes the live gator can severely damage to total out a car depending on the size of the gator and or the size of the car. Personaly have NOT made contact with the live version but have made contact with the rubberized version. .... drill sgt

I wonder what other first world countries are like. I travel extensively in J-K-T and while I don’t spend hours in their highways like I do here, I don’t think I’ve ever run across debris like furniture, mattresses and shit like I do here. I know it’s a numbers game but I have no recollection over 30 years of travel. Europe? Canada?

Here, if you can haul, I’ve probably seen it.

Last year dodged a pallet in the middle of I75 in KY coming back from HHI. Saw another, then caught up to the offending truck, and saw yet another pallet take flight off the back of his truck. Wife is frantic, pull up next to him, let him know, flag him over, get his plate number…. Called 911… two call transfers later, she had the option to leave a message.

I hit a turkey on a motorcycle doing 65mph once and no, it was not wearing a helmet. I saw it standing on the side of the road facing away from the road. I figured it would run off away from the road, but no. It turned around, jumped straight up, and straight out like a Harrier. POW, right side of the faring, knocked the mirror off, and my shoulder was sore for two weeks.

There does seem to be more debris in on the roads than there’s been in the past.

quote:

turkey on a motorcycle doing 65mph

I'd like to see that. Too bad there isn't a video.

I was behind a truck that birthed alligators. Luckily I only had to dodge the critters. I was surprised at how loud boom was when the tire blew and how far the pieces flew.

Ran over the remains of a logging truck tire on M95 one dark night.
Pretty much gutted the right side of the undercarriage my Nissan XTerra.

Oh yes, truck tires are loud as hell when they go!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
J-K-T

Maybe Japan, Korea and Taiwan…

Last summer I was on I64 in KY when I dodged an entire wheel. It had come off a car about 150 ft ahead of me in the lane on my left. It bounced over the median before I lost sight of it. Not a gator, but shit!

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
shit!

Exactly what I said Saturday afternoon!

I met with the insurance adjuster yesterday... $1650. Yee-ouch!

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
I was behind a truck that birthed alligators. Luckily I only had to dodge the critters. I was surprised at how loud boom was when the tire blew and how far the pieces flew.

if you start smelling hot rubber you’re getting ready to find a tire coming apart. Be extra vigilant around that smell, the heat is killing the tire.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
I met with the insurance adjuster yesterday... $1650. Yee-ouch!

Under 2k, it’s not even worth claiming. At least not in my state. Someone did about that amount, financially, of damage to my truck and I went over it with my broker and we both agreed, not worth it. They’ll just increase your rates. I hate insurance here.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:

Under 2k, it’s not even worth claiming. At least not in my state. Someone did about that amount, financially, of damage to my truck and I went over it with my broker and we both agreed, not worth it. They’ll just increase your rates. I hate insurance here.

Raise your rate for a not-at-fault?

I would certainly go shopping when its policy renewal time.

^^^ My kids just had this happen. Volkswagen Atlas, broken into at Patrick Air Force Beach (area is going downhill fast). Broken passenger rear window, minor trim damage. Camera lens, sunglasses, high end purse, cash, airpods, and other miscellaneous stolen. Total value of loss and damage, about $5,500.00.

After conversation with their agent, it was decided that it would be cheaper to eat the loss, pay for the repairs out of pocket, and never file the claim, due to the increase in premium that would last for a minimum of three years, and would be in the insurance database so that it would follow them from insurer to insurer.

Sucks, but that's the reality of insurance today. It's really to protect you against a total loss, and for liability to others if you are in a wreck.

ETA: I will say, that this one was right on the border. If the loss had been higher, or the damage greater, it may have been worth the claim. In this case $5,500.00 - $6,000.00 seemed to be the break point. Greater than $6k, and it probably would have been worth filing the claim.