Road hazards

Hazardous object being unexpectedly dropped from an oncoming vehicle in a two-lane road is a really scary thought. :pinch:

Good Fortune!

I got a ticket for a unsecured and uncovered load but I see those all the time. Double standard.
Steve

Back in the mountains where I used to live, the log trucks get paid by the load, not by the hour. Large tree parts falling off in front of you, massive overhanging loads swinging out into your path, combined with mountain grades, blind corners, guardrails (sometimes)...CLIFFS!!!!!! :ohmy:

Gravel haulers near my home now use the same stupid concept - get as many loads in per day as they can. They drive accordingly - without care or consideration. You best not get in their way (even when they are driving on the wrong side of the road) on something as small as a bike! Creates one hell of a hazard for average motorists...

Just coming home the cam was off. Iost a battery. A truck hauling a toy hauler lost a rim. First the tire shredded then the rim a hub flew off. I smelled rubber, got in the passing lane and slowed down and watched the fun. The people behind him didn't know what to do, the guy in the Suburban that just passed me on the right then cut me off decided to tell the truck driver about his wheel. I almost stopped in the center divider to let it all pass by but stayed back until I could pass. Getting into San Berdoo, a drop cloth was in my lane. Glad I wasn't behind the truck that lost it.
Keep your eyes open and scan ahead, it could save your a**.
Steve

Riding down the highway this spring I started to hear this clanging sound, in the lane to my right there was what can be described as a square hitch tube with an 6 or 7 inch square plate welded to the end of it, It was clanging away being hit by every car on the road, poking holes through floorboards and oil pans as it scampered. A second later it rolled under the tire of the SUV right next to me. I'm just glad it wasn't in my lane because that debris was brutal.

My best riding buddy (many bikes, including one KILLER of a Canadian model Honda CB1100F) was heading home on the highway in his Toyota 4-Runner when one of these bounced off of the low bed truck in front of him....



A complete track roller assembly from a Caterpillar D-8 Bulldozer. They are about 250 lbs. worth of steel, 9" diameter, about 14" long...

Went under the Toyota's front wheel and bounced up into the floor pans, transmission, and undercarriage...the truck hauling the dozer kept on going....the Toyota....not so good. At least he was o.k. If he had been on a bike, however....

Yep. Watch for service trucks. Anything for that matter.
Steve

long ago, early 80's; I was driving on a highway in Miami. heavy truck in front of me had a forklift on it's rear; LPG tank fell off the forklift and went spinning across 5 lanes spewing liquid propane.
I don't think anyone hit it; miracle in Miami.

In the bizarre, strange, and nutty Canadian province of Manitoba (where I currently live) we have two hazardous situations I've seen that defy belief:

1. In a small beachside community just north of Gimli, MB., there is a street with a large oak tree - 3' diameter at the base - growing in the middle of the southbound lane of the road in a gentle curve of the roadway. There are no warning signs....
2. On a rural road - speed limit of 55 mph - near a remote village called "Rorketon, MB.", there is a grave sight complete with a picket fence and large metal cross monument on the shoulder of the roadway, right at the edge of the travelled lane.

In both cases I had to run GPS topographical surveys of these roads for the engineering office I worked for. When I returned with the survey data and prepared the survey drawings from that data, no one in my office could believe the tree and the grave could actually be in the roadway....until I showed them the pictures....

Update:
I just checked on Google street view. The tree has since been removed, probably at the insistence of the project chief engineer, during the re-construction of the street after the installation of buried pipe sewer and water services, which was why I had to survey and draw that section of road.
I also checked Google earth for the grave (no street view available for such a desolate and remote place), that grave is still there...

In Desperat Hot Springs they made the curbs in triangles around the trees. The stick out 4' and are unmarked. Nice thing to run into at night.
Steve

mark in Portugal wrote: long ago, early 80's; I was driving on a highway in Miami. heavy truck in front of me had a forklift on it's rear; LPG tank fell off the forklift and went spinning across 5 lanes spewing liquid propane.
I don't think anyone hit it; miracle in Miami.

The entire city of Miami is a road hazard :woohoo: