It could be said that I'm a careful driver for a reason, and I'd agree, though there are far more than just a single incident which makes me be cautious. And since you're here reading these now I will be so kind as to elaborate on just a few of them.
The Conduit
The first incident of note took place of I-10 just outside of Jacksonville Florida. I was driving about 6 car lengths behind an electrical contractors truck, complete with a rack of bundles of conduit on top of it. One of those bundles took it in it's mind to leap off the top of the truck in front of me and fall to the road. *shudder*
There was a car on my right, and concrete barriers on my left, and as I was deciding which way to head I saw the bundle of conduit land squarely on one end of the bundle and jump back into the air with the straps holding the bundle together breaking at the same time, , I drove under an umbrella of conduit and watched in the rear view mirror as it showered down to the road immediately behind me. ::SAFE:: *whew*
The Barrel
Similar to the above situation, same road, another contractors truck. Only this time it wasn't a bundle of conduit which fell off, it was a 55 gallon drum!
At that time, the speed limit on I-10 was 55 mph, and this was just west of where I-10 passes under I-295 on Jacksonville's west side. I am still not certain what caused the barrel to fall, but it did indeed slide out of the truck in front of me and fall to the road. With a string of cars to my right, and the grassy median to my left (no concrete barrier as in the earlier case) I had only the one choice and that was to drive into the median to avoid the barrel, , but wait, , the barrel had fallen on it's side when it hit the road and was rolling smoothly along behind the truck ahead of me staying in the same lane even. I was slowing down staying ready to react to whichever way the barrel went when it eased to the left and caught something which made it begin flipping end over end somersaulting into and across the median finally coming to rest on the far edge of the median just prior to going into oncoming traffic, , wow, , it did what? Had I not been there watching it happen I would likely be incredulous about it too, but I was there, and watched it happen, , and came out unscathed yet again.
The Crane and Semi
Incident 3, takes place on I-295 south on the south side of Jacksonville. I had been working out of town in Gainesville and was returning home Friday night after being gone all week, and naturally I was in a bit of a rush to get home. Going over the ??? bridge I was behind a Semi with a lowboy trailer which had a crane on it. I was trying to get in a position to change lanes and get around the semi, which the traffic in the left lane was doing their very best to prevent, when, , the lowboy broke dropping the back portion of the trailer and the crane to come to a sudden halt blocking both lanes of traffic, ,oh sh** sh** sh**!!! <<brakes>> I came to a stop with the nose of my truck about 2 feet shy of hitting the trailer, and as the traffic to my left also managed to stop in time we all breathed a collective sigh when there was no sound of vehicle impacting vehicle. It was truly remarkable that no vehicles ran into each other with the way rush hour traffic tended to be. Of course we then sat there on the bridge for 4 hours while the gear needed to move the obstacle where gotten to the site and various pieces of it hauled away. Once again I was in a position to have been in a fairly bad accident but everyone reacted well and no one was injured, with the possible exception of someone having done what I had said 3 times while they were trying to stop in time. Just one more reason to be aware of what's going on around me all the time, because who knows what could happen next. (once you read on you'll know of course)
The Bosses Caddilac
Having driven to Atlanta in the morning for a trade show and then being on the way back to Jacksonville headed south on I-75 just south of the border between Florida and Georgia approaching the first Rest Area on I-75 in Florida. A car was heading down the ramp from the rest area back onto the highway, I was in the right lane and a semi was in the lane to my left about halfway back the length of the car I was driving. Oh, the boss had been napping in the passenger seat while I drove.
I was keeping an eye on the car entering the highway and getting ready to slow down behind it when it suddenly made a U-Turn on the highway to head back up the ramp the wrong way. OMG ! ! gah!!! My loud noises woke the boss up, and fortunately the Semi driver was as aware of what was unfolding in front of us as I was, he slowed just enough to allow me to dive across the lane into his lane as we passed the car which was now in the right lane headed the wrong way back to the ramp. Until that moment the boss had always chuckled at my tales of *Road Survival Issues* but he was now a true believer.
I should have begun to wonder then whether or not something somewhere was out to get me, but I didn't.
ManHole Covers or big steel tiddlywinks?
Why do things always wait for me to come along before they fall off of a truck?? WHY??? Not that I mind as long as no one gets hurt, but it has gotten just a little bit of a paranoia thing now.
Picture this, a flatbed semi loaded with manhole covers, each weighing about 120 or so pounds, with three stacks across and I think it was 10 covers per stack. I do not recall the precise location that this took place, but it was off the major highway on more of a 4 lane road divided by a narrow grass median. I was probably about 50 feet behind the semi, when it hit a bump in the road, and the chains securing the last three stacks of covers broke and the manhole covers promptly fell off the truck in a most amazing display of flying steel. (so impressive that there are probably still marks where my buttocks squeezed the seat of the truck I was driving) The covers were flying in every direction and I did the only thing I could, which was hit the brakes and stop as fast as possible, hopefully avoiding them. When I came to a stop, and the covers stopped flying also, I got out of my truck, stepping on a cover which had come to rest just below the drivers door of my truck, and walked around my truck to see where all the covers ended up. Three of them were within 5 feet of the front of my truck, one just to the left that I had stepped on, and another one had made a final little slide and was halfway under the passenger side of my truck almost centered between the front and rear tires. The only area with no covers was immediately behind my truck. *sigh* As glad as I am that I again managed to get through yet another situation that I expected to end in disaster, mine, I was beginning to worry that many more of these little incidents with the odds steadily decreasing in the chances that I'd continue being as lucky as I was so far. Would you be paranoid yet? Just wondering, , It's not a question that we really want to know the answer too yet anyway.
The Semi meets the Mazda RX-7
I'd been driving this cute little car which the company I was working for had provided me for about a year with no unusual things happening, when one day, , ,
I was headed back to the office after lunch. I had pulled into the left turn lane and was waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear to allow me to make the last turn onto the road where the office was located when the light turned red and I had to wait until the the light turned and gave me a green arrow to proceed.
The other traffic was coming to a stop, with a white pick-up stopping rather suddenly in the lane immediately to my right and another car already being stopped in the next lane to the right, when I glanced at the white pick-up and caught an image in the rear view mirror that I still remember. The grill of a semi, moving fast, directly at the rear of the RX-7!!
I had the car in first gear with one foot on the clutch and one on the brake, when I saw that grill I popped the clutch, and hoped that since the light had Just changed that no traffic had entered the intersection from the cross streets yet, I didn't expect to get all the way out of harms path this time, but I was going to give it my best effort. I managed to move forward and to the left just far enough that the left edge of the front bumper of the semi grazed the rear bumper of the RX-7 breaking the plastic cover over the tail lights, but Not breaking any tail lights, and the lug nuts which stick out from the front tires made a swirled pattern up the right hand side of the car as the they just barely impacted the car. The semi finally came to a stop after it was over 2/3 of the way across the intersection. The impact wasn't even enough to set off the air bag in the car.
Since I carry a mobile phone I go ahead and call the police, and then the office to advise them I've been hit by a semi in the intersection *g* they found out shortly I wasn't hurt, the office was only about 500 feet away. The police officer was furious that we hadn't moved the vehicles, , since no one was injured, , and partly because another car almost hit His patrol car when he stopped with his lights flashing. Gee, sorry officer, we'd have waited for you to go chase down the schmuck that almost hit you, , don't take it out on us. Anyway, a few things that made this annoying, aside from having messed up my way cool company car, was that not a single person who was also stopped at the traffic light stayed around to make a report. When the light changed they all drove away, no one even checked to see if there were any injuries before they left. *sheeeeeeeeesh* Anyway, I was just happy to have managed to get just far enough out of the way that I wasn't catapulted across the intersection, or flattened by the semi. Once again I was amazed at the outcome of me and weird things that happen on the road.
"Please Drive Safely"
This last incident has me worried, it's not enough that I have to have yet another incident, but to have it happen the way it did, , well, , read on, it'll make sense later.
I was driving the loop around Dallas, yes, the one in Texas, on a fairly busy highway. If I recall correctly now it's 4 lanes in each direction, and I was in the right middle lane. A city garbage truck was about 100 feet ahead of me in the same lane. Having just a bit of paranoia about things leaping out of trucks at me I changed lanes one to the left. I was still keeping a small amount of attention on the rear of the garbage truck, just in case, when something caught my eye along the side of the truck. A piece of metal was flapping violently, and then suddenly came away from the side of the garbage truck and made like a frisbee straight at my windshield! Egads, <<BRAKES>> between hitting the brakes, and again changing lanes one more to the left, the *frisbee* impacted the van I was driving just behind the right headlight slicing a gash about 9 inches long in the side of the van. After stopping with the emergency flashers on I went and recovered the object. It was a sign, one of those that you see on almost every truck out there, a gentle friendly reminder kind of sign , , one that read, , *Please Drive Safely*
Needless to say, though happy to still be here after all of these situations, I can't help but wonder, , what is next? I'm assuming the worst, and becoming even more aware of everything that is going on around me as I drive. It's either that or get a tank, preferably one with highway speeds and fully armed, , just in case.
I hope you enjoyed these, although as I went through each one I was less than amused, it has shown me that being aware of my surroundings, and ready to react to them, is a Very good idea. Or at least it works for me :) |