I was right behind this. When I saw what was happening I tried to get the drivers attention to no avail. I'm assuming a faulty valve was to blame, as the bed was slowly rising. I gunned it and got as far ahead as I could. Saw the collision in my rearview.




Back in around 2000 I was behind a truck on the 40 in New Mexico when I noticed the extension ladder in his bed was about to let go. He was in the passing lane about 100 feet ahaead of me. I got into the far right lane just as the front rope securing the ladder let go. It swung like a baseball bat and smashed the windshield of the car behind causing a massive pile-up that I barely avoided.

I was behind a pickup truck that was slowing down to make a left turn into a driveway. As he started to turn I saw the passenger side rear door open and a little boy about 4-5 years old came rolling out across the pavement. Before I could stop and get out the little fella had jumped up and ran back to the truck and got in.


Another time I’m driving through Memphis on the highway. It’s raining so hard visibility was severely limited. I ran over a fiberglass extension ladder in a Nissan Altima.

Bet getting out of the cab was a trick!

I have to admit that I lost a BBQ out the back of my truck about 20 years ago.

The kicker was, that my cousin said that he thought it needed to be tied down better...Well I said it would be fine.

I was wrong

My first experience with stuff falling off vehicles was when I was about 10 years old. My family was driving up to our summer cottage in NH and were in the left lane of I-93. In front of us was a Chevy Impala with a mattress tied to the roof. We were commenting on how it was rising up when all of a sudden the damn thing flew up and back landing right in front of our Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser station wagon. My Dad, of course hit the brakes and skidded right up and over that mattress. Needless to say there wasn’t much left of the mattress but it scared the shit out of all of us...The rest of the trip was held in silence as we all thanked our lucky stars.

In Tal Afar, Iraq, I had a brand new, cheap-ass Chinese DEER truck, which is like a little toyota luv truck. Piece of junk. I drove it for the first time to a DFAC (dining hall) on the base, and when I came to the first speed bump (a tank tread), the rear bumper fell off and jammed in the tank tread.

The truck never improved.

I have an aluminum hand truck that Dad found in the middle of I95 one day,
it was early, and no traffic (and easily 40 yrs ago or more) so he just stopped, tossed it in the back of the pickup and left,



when I was a kid, a tractor trailer passed us on US360 just North East of So Boston, and as it came back into the slow lane, the trailer kept going to the right,
off the road, thru a lot and stopped at a tree,



I watched a pissed off 7UP driver take off down a parking lot, and hang a right on a county street,
with his roll up doors open on the side of the truck,

about 2 pallets worth of soft drinks, in bottles and 2 liters went bouncing across the road, (couple of cars hit)


had a Deer come across in front of us on 64 just inside the WVA line, not from out of a truck but there it was,
we missed it, but the guy in the slow lane did not see it, and full body impact at at least 75 mph,
they were ok, mini van was not,



lots and lots of coolers, furniture, etc on the highway,
one I remember was a guy that had a dresser on his pickup, but did not secure the drawers,

bend in the highway at about 70 and a couple drawers went flying, one under a passing car,


came up on a Bumper cover , big plastic cover from some GM product in the middle of I64 in RVA, was fortunate to see it in time and brake hard and maneuver to miss it

the worst I have seen was a sheet of ice and snow came off the top of a tractor trailer and hit the windshield of a Jeep on the interstate several years ago. The driver of the jeep did not survive.

Driving Southbound I-15 in SLC, I saw a ramp slip out of its storage spot and onto the road. It slid flat and sparking into the next lanes over. Cars swerved to avoid it on its way off of the freeway. No one hurt. No property damage.

I didn't witness this next event. A young lady friend of Jr DF #4 was traveling I-15 with her mother. Lady friend was 19. There was some reason they needed to pull over in the right emergency lane behind another car. While mom spoke with the other party, lady friend goes back to their car and sits waiting for mom. A truck loses a ramp from a trailer. It is the kind of ramp that is used to elevate a car for service. It tumbles but lands face up . A Range Rover hits the ramp with the driver side tire. the ramp tosses the rover up and into the back of lady friend's car. She is killed instantly. DF#4 still mourns the loss of his friend. Lady friend's twin sister is still not recovered emotionally these 5 years later.

I witnessed the following but learned of the results reading the news. Traveling Eastbound I-215 I see a Westbound pickup lose a chair from the bed. Later that night I read that someone hit a chair in the road, crashed and died.

I've seen some irresponsibly loaded vehicles over the years.

I was in a convoy of M151A2 jeeps heading across the south Bronx expressway on my way out to Long Island when a tow truck dropped and entire car of it's hook. The front wheels were turned fully to the left, so as soon as it hit the road it shot through our convoy like a rocket. The whole think happened so fast no one could react, which was a good thing. The M151 got real twitchy under heavy brakeing, and there would have been jeep all over the road had we had time to react.

When I had just started my career and finally had a decent, steady paycheck coming in, I decided to move from my cheap but ghetto apartment into a nicer one. I asked a buddy with a pickup to help me move the bigger pieces.

On one trip, we loaded up my large platform bed (for a memory foam mattress) into the bed of his truck. It was too large for the tailgate to shut. Buddy said it'd be fine, we didn't need to strap it down, we were only going a few miles, and he'd just take it easy.

Buddy made it almost all the way to the new apartment before forgetting to take it easy... He gunned the truck at one point, and the platform bed quickly slid out the back of the pickup and shattered all over the street.

There was no other traffic, so we quickly collected all the pieces and tossed them back in the bed of the truck. I then slept on a mattress on the floor of my nice new apartment for a little while until I could replace it.

I once saw two or three large garbage bags full of aluminum cans fall out of the back of a garbage truck on the highway. It was pretty wild, they hit, burst open and in an instant three lanes of highway were awash in a wave of cans. It almost looked like a liquid the way it splashed and spread. Then when the other cars hit the "puddle" of cans, they flew and "splashed" all over. It was really cool.


I had a folding card table come off the car ahead of me on the same highway. It spun like a helocopter and took off. As it did, it's legs extended upwards with the inertia of spinning. It went maybe 10-12 feet in the air, then landed in front of me, sliding towards me as I approached at 60 mph. With cars on both sides I couldn't swerve. I did brake have and just as I was about to slam into it, the G's must have reduced enough that the legs re-folded and I drove right over it without touching it.

I also watched two tackle bags full of surf casting plugs fall off the front bumper of a van and spray all over the highway. That would have been neat to see if they had not been my bags and I a passenger in the van.



This reminded me of what could have potentially been the most horrible incident in my life.. same stretch of road, other direction. I turned off the highway, a 5 gallon jug of sulfuric acid in the back of the truck fell over, rolled back and knocked the tailgate open. Said 5 gallon jug fell out of the truck, somehow without blowing the cap off, turned slightly and rolled down the middle of the highway towards traffic. My only thought is "oh my god, I'm going to jail!" I jumped out of the truck and started chasing it down the middle of the divided highway, running straight at oncoming cars. At that point I realized if a car hits this thing and doesn't run me over I'm going to get showered with acid. Either way I'm good as dead. I managed to catch up to it, picked it up and put it under my arm started running back to the truck. Adrenaline is an amazing thing because these bottles weigh about 80 lbs and are hard enough to carry with the handle, here I am running with it under my arm like it was football. I threw it in the back of the truck and took off. That's when it hit me physically, I was shaking, I felt like I would throw up and shit my pants all at the same time. I was extremely lucky.

Ladders. File Cabinets. Appliances. Lawn Equipment. Suitcases. Boxes of stuff. Complete driveshafts due to unjoint failure, mufflers, even what appeared to be an alternator.

I actually ran over a ladder last year at 75 mph at night. Scared the crap out of me, luckily no damage to the company vehicle I was driving.

Saw a FEDEX go around the corner, door rolled up and a large heavy case fell out. It was a reusable type of some sort of heavy duty case with lots of hinges and latches and it had those metal bands you cut off to open it. Obviously something quite important and valuable. I stopped right behind it before I hit it and another guy stopped immediately, we put it in the back of my pickup. I chased off after the FedEx still in sight but driving fast as they usually do, lost him at a stoplight. The FedEx big yard/terminal was a couple miles away so I took it there. The guard didn’t like me at the gate, told him to call the supervisor. Supervisor came out, eyes got big, asked where I got it. Told him I wished I had a dash cam. He knew what it was and had some guys come around take it. Got a nice thanks from the supervisor.

I’ve seen all sorts of parts fall off of vehicles not intended to be apart from said vehicles.

Mattresses and idiots moving things in their pickups too young and silly to know better and not tying things down securely. I always shake my head when I see drawers in the road way that were in a dresser or some sort of household furniture.

Refrigerators, washers and dryers with the doors/lids flapping and sometimes sprung and ruined or even torn off at highway speeds, not secured.

I’ve more than once had to dodge a wheel that came off someone’s vehicle and also from an 18 wheeler.

Even saw a boat, minus trailer, in the ditch.

This crap kills people.

Stupid shit costs people money, time and inconveniences upon arrival at their destination.

EDIT to add: I just remembered. When I was in college during the late 70’s I had a Duplex near campus. Here were often parties and beer bashes at my place. I’ve never played or owned a piano but someone decided one was needed at my place and the old upright would be delivered with beer and tuned by young men and a pickup truck. Go figure.

Later they showed up rather dejected minus the piano but still had the beer. The
Piano died when it fell out of the truck at 23rd & Villa, less than a half mile away. I didn't believe it until I drove over and looked. Yep there was a pile of wood junk and piano wires in pieces at the curb, at least they cleared the roadway of it.

Young college age men and women, beer, bbq and pizza, loud music, the party must go on, and it did.
.

I saw a car pulling out of a parking lot with a couple of sheets of plywood on the roof and no securing straps, just some kids holding them down through the open windows. I wondered how far they got before basic aerodynamics took effect.

I was going around a left hand curve when an approaching truck lost their concrete mixer. As we approached each other it came loose , crossed a lane of traffic, just missed the front of my truck as it crossed my lane then plowed a furrow thru some guys yard with its hitch as it came to a stop.

Two guys I worked with loaded up a trailer behind their truck and drove from Corpus Christi Texas to Colorado to hunt. They drove straight through and when they got to where they were going to hunt the trailer was gone. They have no idea at what point they lost it and were never contacted about anything in it. If I recall properly their guns were in the truck and the trailer had their other hunting and camping gear.

I was driving through Cincinnati on I-75 one night back in the '70s and passed a tire and rim bouncing/rolling down the interstate. It was probably doing 50 mph and headed right down the middle of the lane like it had eyes. I never did figure out where it came from.

14" aluminum ladder.

How do I know it was 14"? Well, I can't be for sure that it was 14", but a typical freeway lane is 12" and that ladder was perpendicular to the lane and stuck over both skip lines.

Unsecured loads are one of the things that bother me the most. In motor vehicle accidents, there's usually a way to get to the perpetrator, but these negligent land mines? Unless you take the hit and the have the presence of mind to floor it and catch up to the bad-acting hauler, you're never going to get to them or their insurance. And you can hit something from someone who's long gone, maybe miles or even hours ahead of you, and you'll never have a chance to catch up to them.

I also despise the construction truck gravel haulers with those signs that say "not responsible for damage." Sure buddy, show me the statute. You can't privately disclaim liability from a code violation. Imagine: "Stay back 2 miles: not responsible for damage from bullets randomly fired from vehicle."

A boat.

An icy day in San Antonio resulted in a many-mile long chain of accidents in the southbound I-35. Over a hundred vehicles, in different clumps centered around the overpasses (you know, where the ice forms).

I was northbound, in crawling traffic.

At one of the clumps of vehicles, sitting in the southbound freeway, was a power boat. I don't remember seeing a trailer anywhere in the mayhem.