Road Hazards

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I was headed into Atlanta today when something white came out of nowhere and went up underneath my car. I crossed four lanes and took a ramp leading to another highway and pulled into a grassy area well off the road. The whole way there was this godawful scraaaaaaatching sound on the road. Once into the grass I put the car into reverse and backed up to discover a white plastic 5-gallon painter's bucket was the item that had jammed underneath my car. So far nothing is leaking and I don't see anything damaged, I'm due an oil change and will find out if there was any damage when I take the car to the dealership tomorrow.



This incident reminded me of another drama I had about a year ago two miles farther up the road....a coil of copper pipe was in the road and the cars in front of me swerved out of the way just in time for that metal monster to slam into my older car's driver's side fender, putting a nice wrinkle in the sheet metal.



What kind of weirdness have you folks seen on the road? Please refrain from telling me which forum members you'd like to slam into at 80mph, I think we all know the lists!



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    I can't personal say I've hit anything. However My best friend was driving through his neighbor hood one sunny summer day when he spotted a smaller moving box. He told me that he had thought that hitting it would be stupid cause you never know what is in those boxes. He did anyway. it got stuck under his Ponitac. He drove the res of the way home, only a five minute drive through the burbs. when he pulled up on to his drive way the box dislodged its self. When he inspected the box he found it was a China set! and even better only two plates were broken! I think he still has it to this day.

    thats my story.

    flick.
  • Reply 2 of 21
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    After spending the last year and a half going between ann arbor and chicago on I94 i've seen ...



    Ladder in the road that one car "split" with its wheels. The guy had to serve at an angle because the ladder was not exactly parallel with the lane. I wanted to pull up next to the guy and give him the thumbs up.



    One day there was a bike roof rack with four bikes attached to it. Luck for them the cars were able to serve out of the way and a truck stopped in the lane so they could pull it out of the way.



    All kinds of animal remains.



    Let's see what else?



    My wife came across a 4x4 post horizontal to the lane on I95 once. It bent two rims and flattened one tire. I think at least two dozen cars hit it. I think when I had the tire changed in five minutes she decided I was the one for her
  • Reply 3 of 21
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    The road hazard: Hummer H2

    The victim: the second closest green cable box (drop/tap) to my house



    Some idjit was 'off-roading' (more like playing in the mud) on the vacant lot close to my house when he came over the crest to get back onto the street. He ran right into the cable box and took it with him...along witht he big metal tap and a bit of the metal conduits. The H2 didn't sound healthy afterward, and I didn't lose my cable connection, so I wasn't too miffed.
  • Reply 4 of 21
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    When I was 17 my friend really really wanted to take my car to get some cigarettes or something, and after much hand-wringing and nagging, I finally agreed to let him take it. He hit an old lady on the way home.
  • Reply 5 of 21
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    Driving back from work about a year ago an 18 wheeler blew one of it's back tires and the ****ing thing hit my car while I was doing 65 mph. It ripped the front grill right off and gave me a few dents on the hood. But it could have been worse. It could have hit the windshield and taken me out too.
  • Reply 6 of 21
    shawnjshawnj Posts: 6,656member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HOM

    Driving back from work about a year ago an 18 wheeler blew one of it's back tires and the ****ing thing hit my car while I was doing 65 mph. It ripped the front grill right off and gave me a few dents on the hood. But it could have been worse. It could have hit the windshield and taken me out too.



    I once drove over said tire on I-80 East coming back from Cleveland. A car was behind me and another was on my side, so I had no choice but to brace for impact. No damage.
  • Reply 7 of 21
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    I do not know about most parts of the U.S., but in many parts of Canada, with the decline in people who hunt, the number of deer and other large animals near the highways has increased substantially over the past few years. Hitting a deer at high speeds can be dangerous. Hitting a moose generally is fatal. This is becoming more common. I narrowly missed hitting a moose - with the whole family in the car - a couple of years ago. Ironically, this did not happen in Canada, but in Northern Maine.





    - Chinney (temporarily posting from Vancouver on a family vacation)
  • Reply 8 of 21
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    When I was about 16 me and my friend were driving up to his house and these people that live near him had their garbage cans in the road. I mean like, some people put there garbage cans on the side and in the road a little, but this wasn't the case, I mean they had their shit like almost to the yellow line. It was up in the middle of nowhere so it wasn't a big deal, but still, who are they to put their garbage in my lane? I know what you're thinking, stupid kids hitting stuff with cars and stuff, it wasn't like that. I've never smashed a mailbox or anything because I know it would suck badly to replace mine, which I have had to do twice now. But anyways, we looped around and went by again, but this time I didn't go into the other lane to go around the garbage cans (Rubbermaid, not metal, thankfully), I hit them straight on going about 70 mph. Looking back I should have though about it more, like what if they had like bricks in there and stuff? Either way it was nuts.



    Then, I think it was two semesters ago, maybe three, I was coming home from class going down a highway when I see all the cars in front of me swerving all over the place. Once there was a break in the cars I could see what they were swerving from, a truck on the other side had lost it's tire, ended up in the median, and now his tire was bouncing about 15 feet in the air going straight down the center of our side of the highway.
  • Reply 9 of 21
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Chinney

    Hitting a moose generally is is fatal. This is becoming more common. I narrowly missed hitting a moose - with the whole family in the car - a couple of years ago. Ironically, this did not happen in Canada, but in Northern Maine.



    This really happens? I was driving on the same stretch of road that I got hit by the tire and there were signs for 10 miles warning that there was "Moose on the loose". I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard, but I guess its not so funny after all.



    No I changed my mind, "moose on the loose" is still funny as hell
  • Reply 10 of 21
    chinneychinney Posts: 1,019member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HOM

    This really happens? I was driving on the same stretch of road that I got hit by the tire and there were signs for 10 miles warning that there was "Moose on the loose". I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard, but I guess its not so funny after all.



    No I changed my mind, "moose on the loose" is still funny as hell




    Actually it is a fairly serious issue in parts of Canada - and apparently, based on my experience - in some parts of the U.S. as well. You will see signs warning about moose all over the place near where I live in Ottawa.
  • Reply 11 of 21
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    Deer are a big problem in the states as well. I know in the small area of Missouri and Kansas that I frequent, I've known several people who've hit deer (including myself at a very low speed) and you can see deer all the time. Nighttime is the worst. You're driving 55mph or more and all of a sudden two little reflective dots and you have about 3 seconds reaction time before the collision.
  • Reply 12 of 21
    I was on Atlanta's perimeter highway earlier this year when I glanced to my right and saw a car pulled over on the side of the road, somebody was apparently fixing a flat tire. I'd seen a state trooper about a half mile back, I think he had somebody pulled over....he was probably too far back to see any of the following happen....



    I noticed the flat tire fixer staring ahead of his car. Then I noticed the tire rolling down the side of the road ahead of the car. I'd already passed it before I fully knew what was happening, but once my brain kicked in I started glancing in my rear view mirror. Amazingly, the tire crossed into the first right lane, then into the next lane.....I kept seeing it appear between the lanes of cars behind me and as it rolled it started hopping. By the time it reached the inside lane it was really bouncing and before you knew it, it had hopped over the center concrete divider directly into oncoming traffic.



    Before you knew it we were in really heavy traffic and all I could see behind me were the brake lights of the other lane of traffic way back in the distance.



    I still wonder what happened on the other side of that wall. There's no way you can anticipate a tire landing on you from out of the blue~
  • Reply 13 of 21
    i had a semi in front of my lose a rear axle.



    entire thing came off, two wheels on either end. it was on a bridge, and started spinning like a top in the center of the bridge. if it hadn't been verticle, i'd never been able to get around it.



    i had another semi blow a retread in front of me. thing was so loud i though i'd lost a tire until chunks of rubber started to rain down on me.
  • Reply 14 of 21
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I haven't had too many driving incidents, but I was in a buddy's car when he hit a deer years ago. We were in his Hyundai Pony clipping along at about 120 km/h late at night, so it was pitch black out. It was like a snapshot, all of a sudden this big picture of a deer in front of us, a loud bang, and it went black. Both headlights out, we're coasting down the highway, and my pussy friend has his hands up on his cheeks screaming like a girl.



    So I reach over and steer the freaking car into the shoulder of the highway for girly man.



    A lady who was behind us stopped right away and let me use her cell phone to call a tow truck. She saw the deer flip over us, and said it went 15 feet in the air... poor thing ended up way in the ditch. I strolled over to check it out, and it was *just* dying.... kind of sad.



    We were just freaking lucky that it didn't come in through the windshield. As it was, it was a total write-off.



    Oh, and there was this other incident where I accidentally ran into about 3 dozen garbage cans in my cousin's neighborhood. No comment on that one.
  • Reply 15 of 21
    Quote:

    Originally posted by drewprops

    There's no way you can anticipate a tire landing on you from out of the blue~



    A friend of mine once halted at a traffic light. He had a habit of not driving to the line but stopping already a bit earlier. It was late at night. Then a car came by the other road (much too fast). It hit the curb, was catapulted into the air and landed right on the hood of my friend's car. If he had stopped by the line, the car would have landed on his roof and he would have been smashed...
  • Reply 16 of 21
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    A former co worker had an experience with a couple of deers. They were running in a feather formation, one deer in front and the othera couple of meters behind it to the left. The first one crossed the road from right to left in front of his car and he mamaged to stop just in time not to hit it. Then the other dear came smashing into the right side of the car damaging the car rather severely



    They must have been members of deers against cars and done a good bit of planning before making their move.
  • Reply 17 of 21
    Let's see, must of been 1982 I had a 4x4 fall of a truck in front of me at 60 mph, it was fliping and spinning and twirling and just happen to hop right over my car, whew

    2001, had a large black lab run in front of my wifes Saturn that I was driving at 70mph, lauched him for more than 100 ft, and I fought back the tears as the dog lay dying. The owner, a woman, came out of the house/trailer and told me "nah, don't worry 'bout it" as she grabbed the dog by the scruuf and dragged him off the road. She seemed happy that the dog was killed. I still get chills remembering that poor dogs cry as he flew and slid along the roadway. His wail was loud and clear over my rocking car stereo.

    Two weeks later on opening day of hunting season on the same stretch of road my drivers side window ran into a high powered rifles bullet and exploded in my face. I wasn't hurt, the police said it had to be a high powered rifle since the closest woods were over 3/4 mile away, and the woods were lousy with hunters. Those michigan hillbillies are crazy mofo's on opening day. It's like a freakin circus up there.....yeeeeeehaaa.

    BTW, thats not the first time a bullet had flown towards my head

  • Reply 18 of 21
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Dude, I just spit out my coffee!



    I'm trying to picture where you would be cruising in front of houses at 70mph with the stereo rockin', whacking dogs, getting shot in the face and it not hurting (that's how it read for me the first time)....



    Thanks for the day-starting laugh, man. Funny, since none of that is really funny...



    maybe that beer last night hasn't run through my system yet.



  • Reply 19 of 21
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    This reminds me. One day there was a boat on the left shoulder. Just sitting there. Half mile up there was an SUV with an empty tailer
  • Reply 20 of 21
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    Dude, I just spit out my coffee!



    I'm trying to picture where you would be cruising in front of houses at 70mph with the stereo rockin', whacking dogs, getting shot in the face and it not hurting (that's how it read for me the first time)....



    Thanks for the day-starting laugh, man. Funny, since none of that is really funny...



    maybe that beer last night hasn't run through my system yet.







    the road is Jonesville Road going east from I-69, the road takes you to Jonesville no less, it is a country road that people use instead of US-12.

    The speed limit is 55 but with a radar detector I drive a little faster.

    You have to go fast when the school you are building is 112 miles away(South Bend to Jonesville). I made that drive twice a day for 9 months...ughhh.
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