Things that happen during the day that make you think....

[Jstpssng]

There was a 75+ car pileup last month on a snow covered interstate south of here.

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/03/04/news/state/speed-led-to-75-car-pileup-on-i-95-speed-limit-sign-recordings-show/

Looking at some of the pictures it's amazing that nobody was seriously injured. That says a lot about the safety features of vehicles today.

Road debris has always been a hazard. A few years ago I had just let my house in my 3year old Sierra when I heard a "think". Looking back I saw my spare tire lying in the road. The metal crosspiece it was attached to had broken... 80 miles later I would have been driving in 60mph commuting traffic.

 

[sld]

On the way home from picking my daughter up at school yesterday we saw an accident. These are rural 2 lanes with stop signs every mile. We saw a minivan in front of us leave the road and bounce 5 feet in air. It hit the culvert side of a driveway. Then it flew across the driveway and hit a big decorative stone and took out the mail box. The stone must've been 500 lbs and was in the middle of the road. I stopped as we went past and asked the kid if he was ok. He said he was but his mom's van was messed up. Both airbags deployed and both front tires bent completely under.

He had his phone in hand and I guarantee that is what caused the wreck. It was a good lesson for my 12 year old daughter that I think really sunk in.

 

[KevT]

I always give silver haired individuals driving a car with a Florida License Plate plenty of room. Florida Drivers License Renewal.

A wiser statement has never been uttered. And I live here

 

[KevT]

As the old saying goes... When I die, I want to go like my Grandfather did, in his sleep. Not screaming like everyone else in the car

 

[dmccarty]

Driving home last week from work, HP was out investigating an accident. A pick up truck, looked like one from the 80's, was upside down in a ditch. Looks like the truck was south bound and somehow ended up in the ditch in the north bound lane. The ditches can be deep and I hope it was in that section of the road because the truck was flat upside down. The cab did not seem to exist anymore and I hope the cab was just in the ditch. :shocked: Only HP was on scene, no EMS, VFD or wrecker. I hope the driver was able to crawl out the window. Somehow. :confused3:

My best recollection, is that is about the 12th or 13th accident I have seen on that road. I don't know how this wreck happened but I am sure many of them are from people texting. To many of the accidents are people just driving off the road. :shocked: One accident, the car crossed the middle of the road and one driver died. That was a bad one. I have seen others that if anyone survived it would have been a miracle since they drove off the road at least doing 55, did not hit the brakes and hit a tree. Not good.

Later,
Dan

 

[TnAndy]

I was taking my kid to work the other afternoon and we were sitting at a stop light. A pickup with a bunch of junk in the back came through the intersection right to left... and a couple steel T-posts about 6' long bounced out and went skidding down the hill. Cars tailing him stopped and swerved, etc... and he just kept going. Hate to see the next cars come along and run those over. Too much traffic for us to do anything about it.

5 minutes down the road, a box with empty oil bottles flies out of the bed of a pickup we were following. I hit the brakes and nailed my horn. The guy saw it, slowed down a bit, then just kept going and turned off at the next street. I thought he was going to go back and pick them up..... nope.

Firewood is the one that gets me. People heap it up on a pickup truck with nothing to tie it down (like a tarp). Wife was headed to town one evening about dusk, and dead centered a chunk of white oak that had clearly been sawed and fell off a truck (I went and recovered it after she limped back home with the car). Smashed the oil pan about flat, broke a motor mount because the engine lifted so high (Honda Accord) the radiator hoses were leaking they had stretched so much. Several hundred bucks (me doing the repairs) in damage because a chunk of firewood rolled of some idiot's pickup.

She was lucky she didn't see it and try to avoid it, because it most likely would have wrecked the car had she hit it with a wheel.

Another time she hit a 4x4 laying in the road that fell off a semi-truck flatbed. Bent two wheels so bad on the passenger side I had to replace them. (It's cheaper to buy 4 after market wheels than to buy 2 Honda wheels, as it turns out)

We're going to town yesterday evening. Our route is a fairly narrow, winding road over a mountain pass into town. Came up on a mobile home being moved by some company....probably a repo. Yellow fiberglass insulation falling out from under it WAY before we caught up to the convoy gave it away. The guy was flying with it too....taking up both sides of the road (looked like a 16' wide mobile)....Had he met anyone in one of the curves, an accident in the making.

Makes you wonder WHERE the cops hide out at times like these.

 

[Creamer]

I know what you are talking about with the firewood. I was traveling along a county highway about a year ago and met a guy pulling a hay wagon with firewood piled on it. A little bit later I saw a piece of firewood on the road. i stopped and picked it up since it was in the middle of the road. As I went along I picked up a few more. Over the next about two miles I picked up 27 pieces. I also found where he turned onto the highway as there seven pieces right there. What a disaster he was creating!

 

[Taylortractornut]

Last week a friend got his lower leg crushed by an excavator they own same age as I am. Earlier this month we had the small paver at work down for a new set of drive wheels. Had the main one at a shop axle and all made together. When I picked it up the shop said that would be bad to see coming down ther road at you. I'm paranoid about a lot of things on my truck no Being secured. I double strapped it and went home. The next morning went to town to get filter and on the way to work I stopped by the house to get a porta power to install the axle. When I left the house about a mile later a friend. Called me and told me I was dragging a strap. My new tsc strap had broken at the hook. I abc tracked and never did find the tire and axle assembly it either rolled into the woods or was picked up. The next one I hauled was in the cab of the truck. Scrap ironers here haul some shady loads one had a brush hog on top of a load of other iron and it fell off in the road. They got out and looked then drove off. I chained it to the back of my truck and dragged it one mile home. A few repairs made a good mower. The now deceased meth head neighbor hauled a 4500 pound forklift carcass to the scrap dealer in the bed of a 90s Dodge Dakota. Past the DOT they let him go but stop half the empty trucks goin by.

 

[DABSGT]

This has happened more than a few times in my life. Foe "some reason" I delayed pressing on the accelerator when the light turned green, on a vehicle I was driving because I was distracted by "something". Sure enough BAM the car next to me that did take off when the light turned green immediately got T-boned. Most recent was a few weeks ago. I was in the left lane at the light of a three lane road, the light changed and I was "dreaming" , the guy in the middle lane went, and BAM he spun around three times in front of my eyes shooting past me to my left from the center of the intersection, then into a utility pole. One other memorable time is I delayed take off and a guy comes SCREAMING through the intersection a full 5 seconds after the light went green. I called the wife and said - " I came THIS CLOSE" to not being here. Then I always think of all the WHAT IF's.

When my children first got their license I told them that after the light turns green wait a few seconds before going and look both ways before moving. This helps prevent a T-Bone accident and also hitting the pedestrian who can't read the DONT WALK signal or just not paying attention, texting or talking on the phone as they walk along with their head up their ..... You get the point.

RightCount

 

[txdon]

I think there should be a cut off age when you must give up your licence. I'm thinking 80. That number might change when I get closer. L.O.L. Probably just made some enemies. Let me hear it. I'm 11 years away from that number.

My Mom is 84 was driving in a small town a 40 year old ran a red light t-boned her and totaled her car, there were witnesses and he got the ticket. She is OK. The other drive was in the far lane of a 4 lane Highway, the near lane was stopped. She never saw him. We have a bunch of 90+ driving in this community. all the crashes are by the 20-50 year olds.