I lost a brand new climbing treestand, a new design that had a leveling handle you turned to level the sitting portion without having to fiddle around a lot. About a $400 investment, quickly depreciated by the 18 wheeler that was immediately behind me when it became airborne and flew outta my truck bed. Still grieve for it....

I once got passed on I-75 by a gas-powered walk-behind lawn mower.

I was in the center lane. The car with the unsecured lawn mower in its trunk was passing me on the left. The car was probably going 10 MPH faster than I was going. As the rear of the car is next to my driver's side door, we hit a bump. The lawn mower pops out, lands on its wheels, and passes the front of my car. The mower begins to wobble while maintaining a straight line in the left lane and thankfully takes a sharp left into the grassy median.

quote:

Originally posted by sig226fan:
I think it was last year or so, I was going home on the Dallas North Tollway at rush hour. A work truck was probably 6 cars ahead of me traveling a decent clip. Traffic had just opened up on this stretch. All of the sudden cars started parting like the Red Sea and hitting the breaks. A generator had fallen off the back and skidded along the tollway. This of course was throwing sparks like no body's business. And I guess gas started leaking because it was either on its side or upside down. Then POOF! Flames shot everywhere. Glad I was close and could get around it, because it really caused a shit show for everyone behind me.

This was early last year on George Bush Turnpike. Same setup except it was a washing machine. If only there were some sort of contraption that went across the tail of a pickup, some sort of gate maybe to help keep things in? I just might have to patent something...

When I was 18 I walked out of a gas station and saw a man put a baby carrier with a baby in it on the roof of his car to open the door. He forgot about the baby and started driving down the road. I started chasing him and sure enough the carrier slid right off the car, landed on the road and skidded to a stop. By the time I got there several cars had stopped to get the baby, which was completely unharmed. Someone caught up with the dad and let him know what he just lost. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Once the dad found out that the baby was fine, I bet he was scared to death of the thought that the baby's mom would find out what happened.

Unsecured outboard motor, no tailgate, plastic bedliner, uphill intersection, red light changed to green, loud exhaust on truck, you get the idea.

Cruising through Kansas on the way back home from Nashville, ratty old truck with house furnishings is passing. Their front tire goes out and they jerk left. Off comes a full size couch that apparently wasn't tied down, right in front of me. I rocked the 4 door Tacoma hard right onto the shoulder and missed both the couch and then the mile marker post on the side of the road. Miles and miles of boredom and then, "oh! shite!"

I was following an 18 wheeler hauling a bulldozer down a curvy river road one morning . This guy was obviously in a hurry and was booking it . He went around one curve too fast and the dozer slid off and rolled twice , coming to rest upside down in a sugar cane field . He was in so much of a hurry that he didn't chain it down . I would have loved to have heard that phone call to his boss .

quote:

Originally posted by LDD:
...
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."

That has always bugged the heck out of me too.

Years ago, returning from Sturgis, saw a woman fall off the back of a Harley on a remote rural highway.

Following a guy who offered us a case of beer to help him load and unload an upright piano. On an uphill, the tailgate dropped down. The piano rolled out and shattered on the highway. My buddy said to the driver, who was obviously distraught, "Does this mean we don't get the beer?"

Saw a wallet come off the top of a car. Son jumped out and grabbed it. $100, no ID or contact info. Finally tracked him down by the number on a receipt for photo processing.

We were driving south on the interstate somewhere in Oregon in a heavy rainstorm. A semi in the northbound lanes kicked up a chunk of pavement.

In slow motion I could tell from the arc that that chunk of asphalt was heading right for us and, because of traffic, I could not swerve. I can still remember saying to the wife “Hang on”.

It hit the driver side window, which exploded, showering me with glass and letting in a torrent of rain. I had a death grip on the steering wheel and kept right on going.

We got off at the next exit and stopped. Thank God for tempered glass. Even though I’d been sprayed with broken glass, I didn’t have more than a couple of minor scratches.

A lady at the market drove through the parking lot with a 6 pack of coke on her roof top,

She made it all the way through the lot w/o incident
But
When she made the turn out in to the street C R A S H !
Went the bottles.

And just think, The Beverly Hillbillies made it all the way from Tennessee to Beverly Hills without losing Granny and her rocker from atop that old truck!

This whole thread could / should be called INTERSTATE SHOPPING

Money. Several years back an armored car was going up Leo Frigo bridge in Green Bay. The guards had left two bags of bills on the back bumper.
The bags fell off and spilled money all over the southbound side of the bridge and into the waste waster treatment area below.
I did not get any money, but several motorists ran out and scooped up handfuls of cash. But, I read afterwards that most of the money was found and returned.

About 17 years ago a boat left the water and ended up on I-77 just north of Charlotte. 2:30am, beer cans .... I think they tried to jump the highway in their boat. I didn't see it happen, but it sure made the news the next day.

Boat on the Road

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
I was following an 18 wheeler hauling a bulldozer down a curvy river road one morning . This guy was obviously in a hurry and was booking it . He went around one curve too fast and the dozer slid off and rolled twice , coming to rest upside down in a sugar cane field . He was in so much of a hurry that he didn't chain it down . I would have loved to have heard that phone call to his boss .

reminds me,

local road, then a 2 lane, that fortunately opened up a bit for a turning lane (road curved to the right, another road intersected on the left in the turn,

dump truck pulling a trailer, with a dozer\loader on the trailer,
apparently a chain or 2 broke, or came loose, and it slid off the trailer in the curve,

just slid off and landed on it's side, in the intersection,



re the truck and piano,

guy with a jacked up dodge 4x4, and a stack of drywall maybe 3' tall, and looked like 10 foot peices,

he was squatting in the rear at a light, and when he took off, his one lone strap broke and it all slid into the road,
like dominos that has been pushed over,


he and the passenger were scratching their heads , I would guess wondering how they were going to get it restacked,

quote:

Originally posted by Tinyman:
This whole thread could / should be called INTERSTATE SHOPPING

Many of my favorite and most used tools were found in the road.


While I didn't see it come off, I was crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge one day and traffic slowed and cars were changing lanes suddenly. There sitting in the middle lane was the cap from a full sized pickup truck. Oops!

Going about 70 on the interstate in Missouri, I change lanes behind a full size Chevy SUV, with less than ideal following distance. Suddenly SUV is on the brakes hard and has obviously hit something, front end goes up, and I'm hit by a shower of debris. I think the SUV has hit another possibly slow moving car and is about to come to a sudden stop with me hitting the SUV.

Turned out the SUV hit a large tube TV laying on or sliding down the road and pretty much obliterated it on impact and driving over it. Probably saved me from hitting it. The SUV limped off the next exit with probable damage to undercarriage.

Forklift propane tanks not secured in bed of pickup.
Takes off from red light, tanks roll back, hits tailgate,it fails
Truck behind hits one dead center, lifts front wheels off the road.
33 lbs of propane under an engine, what could go wrong?

Had an entire heavy plastic pickup truck bed-liner lift up and fly directly over the car I was driving while barreling down I-20 towards Atlanta. Cars were scurrying left and right around it as it. I remember watching it start to shift around and lift a little, and thinking "hmmm, the right conditions are going make that thing come out..." and it flew out before I could finish the thought.


Following a pickup in Montana one summer in Kalispell (turning by Snappy's heading up HWY 2 towards Columbia Falls) a huge 120 or 150 Qt cooler slid out of the bed and landed upright. Truck kept on going, we stopped and put it in the back of our truck. It was packed full = fresh ice and cheap cans of beer. They never came back and we couldn't catch up to them. We definitely made good use of it.