Close call

Taylortractornut · Apr 15, 2004

Well yall I had a nice Tuesday. Goin to check my 2 40 yard roll off containers at Tiffin Motor homes I found out what sound a West Coast mirror makes when hitting another one at 60 MPH. I drive a 72 Mack DM600 sidewinder cab and my top speed is 55 to 60 MPH. I stretch the legal limtis on width restricions because my canopy comes out to 9 feet 2 inches but blocked the view of the original mirrors that came on the truck when dad and I owned it. We installed a set of west Coast mirrors on the the drivers side to get the proper view wich is ok. Well Tuesday im truckin along with a fresh opened donut on the cup holder with my window down as usual and i meet another truck a big bob tailed flatbed with West Coasts on it. I move over the white line as usual but in this curve theres a few houses. I had a feeling we didnt have enough room and we didnt. Ive never heard a racket like that before not even in my big car crash.
I cant describe the feeling other than it felt like gettin slapped in the face by a pine limb and I felt sicke I had glass around my coveralls collar in my hair I pulled over 200 yards down the road and climbed down with only my right eye opened. I climbed up on the battery boxes on the pessenger side and looked in the mirror to check the damage. i got the 1 biggest piece out of my cheek and the other little one out from under my eye. I flushed it with my bottled water. I dont know how I could have missed theat blood running down my face but I got a chill when I saw it my Ear the rest of my cheek and my chin was driping the red stuff pretty good. I got my towels out and wiped what I could up and got the truck started again. It took about 8 minutes to turn the truck around as finding a driveway to turn a 33 foot long truck into is fun. I went about 2 miles back and didnt find the other driver. when i et nervous i want to nibble on something then discovered the travesty my Krispy Cream donut had glass in it to. I turned around and drove another 4 miles to the Motor home plant and pulled in the back by my dumpsters. One of the maintencane guys called the factory nurse and she picked the glass out of my ear and cheek. Also she noted another cut with glass in it 1/8th of an inch from my eye. She told me how lucky I was to have glasses and all. SHe wanted to call home and get dad to drive me back but I insited TO take my old truck back to the Landfill to get my pickup. The next morning I fixed the mirror and cleanedthe glass out of the seat then today finally I got to show the nurse the inside of my truck. she was shocked to see that muck glass in the cab. It even had glass out side the other door in the tops of the battery boxes. I think what had happened was a car had come out of the the driveways in the curve and the other driver moved over a bit too much he caught 2 inches of my mirror. Needless to say I almost ruined a good set of underwear. lol

JayC · Apr 15, 2004

Wow. That was close. Glad to hear you are ok. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Dozernut · Apr 15, 2004

Glad to hear your okay! Things can go bad real fast! When you survive these encounters, it tends to give you a different perspective on life.

Tractors4u · Apr 16, 2004

I'm glad to hear you are OK. I have seen that happen once before. One 18 wheeler was passing another on what I consider to be a narrow bridge going over the Tennessee river in Decatur. The guy doing the passing smacked mirrors with the passee. I was in front of the passee and it scared the crap out of me. It does make some noise. The passer never slowed down.

billbobtlh · Apr 16, 2004

You diddn't see very many semis going down the Florida Key's highway with their drivers side mirrors intact.
I am glad you come out of that o.k.

MossRoad · Apr 16, 2004

Yeowch! Glad you're OK. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Mark_in_NH · Apr 16, 2004

What really shocks me is that the other driver just kept going. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Mark Page · May 16, 2012

Bought a new JD mower for all the tight spots. The day they delivered it I just had to play around with it. It's a 17 horse machine with hydrostatic drive.
It had forward and reverse and and the brake on the right. Geared tractors have the brake on the right and clutch on the left.
I got down near a small stream bank and want to stop so I hit the the brake on the right except it wasn't the brake it was the forward hydro pedal. The machine lurched forward over the bank turned onver and threw me onto the far bank.
I wound up on my back with my head in the water. The machine was upside down with it's hood in the water. The only real damage was to my ego as my neighbor saw the whole thing happen. We turned it over and used his truck to pull the machine out.
It started right up and I continued mowing.
To this day he won't let me live it down, and he shouldn't.

creekbend · May 16, 2012

It's good to hear that you are okay. Luckily, your eyes didn't receive any damage from the shattered glass.

rockinmywaypa · May 16, 2012

billbobtlh said:
You diddn't see very many semis going down the Florida Key's highway with their drivers side mirrors intact.
I am glad you come out of that o.k.

Thirty years ago, myself and two buddies took a trip to Florida in a motorhome that belonged to one guy's Dad. It was my turn to drive when we hit the keys and I've never been so scared driving in my life, I swear every truck every truck we met and there were lots I had less than an inch. My buddy on the passenger side kept yelling at me to get away from the guard rail because he thought I was going to go over the side. Glad I don't have to ever do that again.