Well it wasn't falling off yet, but
While headed north to Yellowstone, one fall

We noticed smoke coming from a giant load of hay on a semi trailer.

There was no way to pass or signal the driver,
Until he got on the freeway,

By the time he pulled on to the shoulder ,there were flames visible.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,

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."

Last year two ladies riding as passengers in a car near Pauls Valley OK, both in their late 80's of age, were killed when a 50 pound rock fell out of a dump truck and went through their windshield, killing both of blunt trauma.

In this case the truck driver was located and eventually charged with 2 counts of Manslaughter. Surely there will be civil lawsuits against the driver and his company.

Link to One of Many Stories About This Incident


The deaths of two Pauls Valley sisters tragically killed a few months ago by a large rock falling out of a moving truck have now found a path into court.

Criminal charges have been formally filed against Billy Don Melson, 42, of Pauls Valley.

The sisters, Flora Perkins, 83 and Wanda Oliver, 89, were killed in the early evening hours of March 26 when the vehicle they were riding in was struck by a rock that fell out of a dump truck driven by Melson.

An affidavit filed in the case shows Perkins was a front seat passenger, while Oliver was in the back seat of a vehicle driven by Norma Caldwell, who was not injured.

“The investigation determined that a large rock fell from a truck driven by Melson, bounced off of the roadway through the front windshield of the 2017 Dodge Journey,” troopers stated in the court document.

“The collision was caused due to Billy Melson's failure to properly prevent any of its load from … escaping there from the semi-truck he was operating.”

Officials in the Garvin County District Attorney's office filed two felony counts of first-degree manslaughter against Melson.

Hours after the tragic incident troopers reported Melson's truck had just dumped a load of dirt at the site where a new grade school is in the early stages of being built on the west side of Pauls Valley.

The construction site is on the south side of state Highway 19 just east of Indian Meridian Road not far from Interstate 35.

Moments before the event the vehicle with Perkins and Oliver was traveling southbound on U.S. Highway 77 just north of Pauls Valley near Kimberlin Road.

Melson's truck was moving the opposite direction on the same highway.

The rock, described by troopers at the scene as a “50-pound rock,” fell from the truck at a roadway curve coming into Pauls Valley.
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A friend once was moving a mattress in a pickup a short distance and his wife was holding it in the bed. Too fast or a puff of wind and she and the mattress hit the road. She broke her pelvis.

a pull-behind cement mixer.
came across divided highway bounced directly into my new pontiac bonneville.

i knew the owners of the mixer (a construction equipment rental company) so no hassles what-so-ever.

it came off the guy's hitch somehow.

First instance was when I was 5.
We were driving around Mt. Rainier with my Mom driving and I was in the passenger seat.
I was putzing with the handle and out the door I went into a snow bank.
Scared the shit out of my Mom and I never fucked with the door again.
Didn't even get a scratch and couldn't really understand what the fuss was about at the time.

Been working on semis and such for a while and have seen the aftermath of a set of duels departing at road speed, axle shaft and all.
You'd be surprised at how much distance they can cover in a hurry.

A few years before I hired on the shop was involved in a lawsuit in where a set of drive wheels came off and took out a car with fatalities.
The shop payed out $1 million on that.

I had worked all day and into the night pulling a Chevy 400 out of a van so a guy could make a 383 stroker out of it.
Torch, sawzall, in a feild and raining.
I get it all loaded up in my buddies brand new Ford ranger and head home.
Several hours go by and he shows up wet and muddy.
He was going to fast, the ass end kicked out and during that launched the engine through the tailgate and down the road before ending up in a field.
Totaled the Ranger.
Destroyed the engine, looked like it sat on a bench grinder, completely erased the alternator mount on the block.
Still kinda pisses me off when I think about it.

There used to be a small motor home made from the late 1970s/early 1980s Toyota Pickup. Between the extra weight and the dual rear wheels (actually two wheels welded together), the rear axle bearings and shafts could not handle it. I saw one in the right lane of a California interstate pancaked on the ground, the wheel/tire assembly - with the brake drum still attached - off in the dirt about 20 feet away, and a flame licking out the end of the axle housing.

I didn't witness it , but many years ago I was working in a grocery store . Early one Saturday morning We became concerned when the Butcher failed to show up for work . Bill was as reliable as a Swiss watch and it was unusual for him not to show up or call . a couple of hours later the Manager got a phone call that Bill had been killed on his way to work . Some guy was towing a welding machine and it came off of the hitch and crossed the centerline of the road . Bill hit it head on .

On my way home from a 16 month assignment in another state, my George Foreman grill blew out of the back of my packed pickup. A sad moment on the side of the road as I gathered the pieces.

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
Well it wasn't falling off yet, but
While headed north to Yellowstone, one fall

We noticed smoke coming from a giant load of hay on a semi trailer.

There was no way to pass or signal the driver,
Until he got on the freeway,

By the time he pulled on to the shoulder ,there were flames visible.

Baling wet hay is dangerous

Well, I didn’t see it fall of the truck, but I did head out the front gate one day years ago to see a small fire in the narrow strip between the freeway and the on-ramp (upswing from the ranch with prevailing winds). Stopped in the driveway, locked the pickup, grabbed a shovel from the bed and ran up to check it out. Managed to put out the brush that was burning, but not the truck tire (still on the rim) before CalFire showed up and took over. Fun & games...

Bonnie was making the 25 min. commute home one day ,on the 101 freeway,
from Reseda to Westlake Village,
She was doin 60 m.p.h. in the #1 lane when
She watched a tire on a rim pass her by, next to the middle wall.

When she took her foot off the gas , the drivers side , front of the truck
slammed to the pavement.

It was her tire an rim !
She was able to get all the way over to the right shoulder and stop w/o
a massive wreck.

That was back when drivers were paying attention,before cell phones.

The C.H.P. showed up ,took a report,
honkey Dorey, and before they had a chance to call
AAA,
A tow truck showed up ,
With her tire and rim on the truck!

The whole mess only took 20 minutes.

something of a drift. A friend of mine, a retired Ohio State Trooper who worked I-80 has the world's largest collection of bungee cords. All picked up off of the Turnpike.

I was cruising down Grapevine hill in Cali back in the late 80's with 45000 lbs of dog food, when an old ass 60's ford pickup decided to pass me. I saw the cap on the pick up starting to shake. I tried to back off but the momentum would not let me. All of the sudden the cap on this rust bucket started to wobble and it stared to come loose. It promptly flew up in the air along with the big Morticia Adams wicker chair right behind it. The chair hit my tractor in the grill and shattered into 1000 pieces on the highway. It did not damage the truck much, but when I got to the scale house, it took me a few minutes to get my heart to stop beating like a drum.

While stationed in Germany we were in the field and we learned how to change a humvee tire alone using your knees to lift it. Well the last guy to do it left the lug nuts loose and the mechanic teaching the class never checked the wheel.
We get on the Autobahn and after a few minutes I see a humvee wheel go flying off that truck and into the twilight zone, and a metric ass load of sparks in the air. Somehow the truck didn’t wreck and nobody got hurt. I was told to put out the warning triangles and that was the fastest 150 meters I’ve ever ran. The best part was waiting 5 hours for a wrecker from our motor pool that was only an hour away to get there. We never recovered the wheel

My fiend took His nephew for a motorcycle ride. A group in a pickup truck in front of them was going tubing. One of the big inner tubes came out of the bed and my friend hit it. Killed him and his nephew had brain damage. The driver of the pickup decided he’d come to the funeral and whine.

Then there was the bartender that got off work and was driving home. A disassemble entertainment center, made out of cheap presswood, fell of a truck, went through her windshield and blinded her. Never found the driver.

This evening I was heading down my neighborhood road to turn right onto the access road onto southbound Lake Hefner Parkway.

As I made the turn from the street onto the onramp I saw a chest of drawers on the grassy roadside strip, just off of the concrete. Obviously some idiot didn't have it tied down in his pick-um-up truck bed when he made the turn, undoubtedly gassing on it too hard and going too fast.

That sort of thing is just idiocy. At the best it just ruins part of a bedroom set, at the worse someone gets hurt or killed.

Mucking Forons!
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Years ago, east of Dallas on I-30, I was in the left lane, when I spotted something coming toward me in my lane. It took a while to register that it was the end of a large wooden spool, about 4 ft in diameter, rolling on its edge like a tire.

I moved over to the right lane and it passed me by, rolling into the median before coming to a rest. Hate to think of colliding with that MFer.

Not long ago, headed into Dallas on I45, a guy pulling a boat passed me. As he got 4 or 5 cars ahead I saw a silver something fly out of the boat. Turns out it was a stainless fish fryer pot. Careening all over the freeway, pin balling off of car wheels and the concrete wall median. I caught it on the edge of a wheel, but luckily no damage, and it kept on pin balling.

I didn't witness this one but it did involve one of the new kids in the shop last week.
I work in a truck shop, semis and such.
The kind of place you would hire I dunno...Mechanics?

On his personal pick up which is a 4x4, the front half shafts were wasted and he only had the money to replace one. Which he had done at a tire shop then came to work.
Since the one was so bad it fell apart he got the brilliant idea of just removing both halfshafts at lunch time.
He left to drive home and made it to the on ramp before one wheel took off down the road and the other was wedged under the truck.

We have a British guy in the shop about as old as I am and He asked him if he was high at the time or drunk. The kid says he doesn't do either and dude is scratching his chin kinda and then asks him, any chance your parents are alcoholics or heroin addicts because no one is that stupid.

It's still a great source of amusement.
Not so funny he's working on semis though.

I saw a car turn left from a stop at an intersection. I watched what I thought was a "roll of carpet" fly out the back door as it opened, and roll thru the intersection. It was dark, took a few seconds to realize the "roll of carpet" was actually a kid about 10-12. When he stopped rolling he dusted himself off, ran back and got in the back seat of the car. The car drove off. My buddy saw it to from the car behind me, and was as shocked as I was.

A person. Passenger. While going 65 mph on I-75. They rolled a ton until stopping, and then got up and ran to the median. We were so shocked we missed our exit and were late for the event we were going to.