Freak fatal accident

The other angle to this is maybe he was in that space in time BECAUSE he stopped to pet the dog or tie his shoes, etc., there is just no figuring why things are what they are sometimes.
Not securing the load on the truck was the factor in this one.
 
My Daughterinlaw was driving with my granddaughter in the back seat. They stopped at a traffic light only a few hundred feet from their house. While stopped, a huge branch, about 24 inches across, broke off a tree and crashed down on the car. It crushed the center section of the car right down to the bottom of the windows, just behind my DIL and just in front of my granddaughter. Each only got scratches. If the car had stopped one foot further or one foot back, I'd have lost one of them.

You never know........................
 
M&P Freak said:
Many years ago a similar accident occurred along a very straight stretch of highway near me, where a logging truck lost a log and it went head-on into a small car. No other cars on the road, no turns, no reason other than timing. It was a large log and the three people in the small car had no chance. Freaky.
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My parents used to have a farm in Mississippi in an area where lots of pine logging was done. Every time I'd meet up with a logging truck on the road I was hoping the load wouldn't come loose and wipe us out. I can tell you there were lots of the trucks and trailers that looked to be held together like they say "with duct tape and bailing wire".
Steve W
 
I once worked an accident where a college student from the University of Alabama was driving northbound on I-59. A heavy rake from the pick-up truck in front of him bounced out of the bed and embedded itself into the windshield of the student's car, missing him by about a foot.

This happened on a Friday afternoon. I advised the student he should be in church Sunday morning, thanking the Good Lord that his life was spared.
 
"Jesus take the Wheel". I may get a ding for this one. I have rolled over twice, been hit on highway in dark of night by animals twice, fragged by similar twice, fell on const sites twice. It goes on and on until it goes no further. Do not Cower the Reaper.
 
30 years ago I was traveling down I95 in NH, there was a large truck in front of me carrying bails of hay stacked very high and leaning to the left. I said to myself I got to get around this guy fast and did. I looked in my rear view mirror a few seconds later and I saw that his load had fallen off and a car was flying through the air and landed on its roof in the median strip of I95, this all happened while doing 65-70mph. I never knew what happened to the other driver this was before the internet, but I thought myself to be a very lucky person that day.
 
I drive about 32K miles a year with my construction business and I see all kinds of things fly out of trucks and trailers. At least three 6 foot step ladders fly out of the backs of pickup trucks and one was right in front of me and when I drove over the heavy duty fiberglass ladder it exploded. An 8' long 4"x8" wood skid fell off a flat bed semi trailer right in front of me and I hit it doing 75 mph and it bent a $600 aluminum wheel. A stack of 7 or 8 plastic 5 gallon buckets fell off a landscaping trailer in front of me on the highway and lodged under my truck and the owner stopped and it took him quite a while to get his buckets dislodged from underneath my truck. I have many other similar stories if I really thought about it and one thing I can say is, I will never allow my daughters to ride with a guy on a motorcycle.
 
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I think the main concept of the original post was the timing of life. I could be wrong.

Several years ago, the wife of a guy from my high school was driving down the two lane road and a gust of wind tipped a semi truck over right on top of his wife's car, killing her. I often think about the providence of God and our timing in life.
 
Zombie thread but before my time.
I was visiting my father in law when he received a phone call from his Mrs. telling him she hit a kitchen sink in the middle of Miami Gardens Dr. while driving her VW Bug.home in the dark. The one sided conversation I heard was as funny as anything Bob Newhart ever performed.
 
We had to buy a new car because a piece of metal fell off a truck. My wife was behind a flat bed semi when a large piece of metal came off the trailer bed into the road. She had no time to take any action and drove over the large metal piece. The piece struck the engine and transmission, heavily damaging both. She was able to safely stop her car on the highway shoulder and the truck continued on down the road.
 
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Ever watch the Final Destinstion shows ?
Everytime you go out and about you will see something, just like it.

Travel I-75 much, it's everyday.
I have seen boats, campers, loads, you name it come your way.
 
I too drive a lot of miles, most all are on the LA freeways and have seen a lot.
Not everything, but I have learned to back off when I see the weekend warriors with all their stuff hanging on side racks or just thrown in the back.

A lot of stake beds seem to sprinkle their leftovers along the roads too. I keep an eye on them even when they are in another lane.

I was in the #2 lane when a dulie stake bed in lane #4 lost its left rear set (I suspect a broken drive shaft), sending the two tire set bouncing up in the air out if sight. The truck was skidding to a stop, lucky he stayed in the lane.

I don't know why, there was no real need, but I slammed on my brakes just as the darn thing bounced about 2-4 feet in front of me - another split second and it would have been through the roof and in my lap.

It continued bouncing down the freeway and stopped in the center divider without hitting anything else but I still wonder what made me stop like I did.
 
A late friend had a trucking business moving oversized loads, and he taught me that after loading, always stop after a few miles down the road to check binders and straps.
Out in the county where we have some country property, there are lots of logging trucks on the roads. I've seen far too many logs, overturned log trailers and twisted and bent log trailers to drive anywhere near those things.
 
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A few years ago before I retired I patrolling a rural area when I came up behind an old pickup truck hauling mattresses. The inside of the truck was occupied by more Mexicans than there were seat belts. The mattresses were stacked about a foot over the cab. On top of the mattresses was one little Mexican trying to hold them down.

As the truck picked up speed the top mattress took flight with the little Mexican guy holding on for dear life. I stopped because I didn't know where it was going to land.

The little guy was lucky. When the mattress landed he was on top of the mattress as it hit the ground. The truck kept going. The mattress pilot saw me as I turned on the blue lights, got up and ran into nearby woods. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. I turned off the blues, did a U-turn, and went the opposite direction.
 
arjay said:
I'm seeing more junk flying out of trucks around here.Some years ago I was following a small pickup carrying a roll of carpet extending over the cab (I was on my bike).As we got out of town and picked up speed, it started to flex and I realized it was tied with twine! I backed off as fast as I could,but it came flying so fast I had to go for the left lane.Lucky for me the guy coming at me was paying attention.
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I had a similar incident when a roll of carpet bounced out of a pickup truck. We were riding on I-90 during Sturgis week when an S-10 pickup with a roll of carpet, half hanging out of he bed, passed us group of bikers. As it hit a rise in the in the highway it rose up and on the carpet also went up coming out of the truck bed (obviously not tied down) landed on the highway and began rolling like a log across the middle of the interstate. Bikes were taking the shoulder, locking up the brakes etc, momentary chaos. Luckily nobody crashed. The pickup took the next exit and never looked back.
 
pantannojack said:
"Jesus take the Wheel". I may get a ding for this one. I have rolled over twice, been hit on highway in dark of night by animals twice, fragged by similar twice, fell on const sites twice. It goes on and on until it goes no further. Do not Cower the Reaper.
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"fragged by similar twice "?
Meaning?
 
Kevin J. said:
I had a similar incident when a roll of carpet bounced out of a pickup truck. We were riding on I-90 during Sturgis week when an S-10 pickup with a roll of carpet, half hanging out of he bed, passed us group of bikers. As it hit a rise in the in the highway it rose up and on the carpet also went up coming out of the truck bed (obviously not tied down) landed on the highway and began rolling like a log across the middle of the interstate. Bikes were taking the shoulder, locking up the brakes etc, momentary chaos. Luckily nobody crashed. The pickup took the next exit and never looked back.
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Survived a 24' extension ladder that bounced off a rack on a pick up truck. Talk about a demolition derby.:eek: I just managed to duck the now two pieces bouncing all over this 65 MPH 3 lanes road at 5PM. (Rush hour)

Quite a few accidents and of course the offending PU just kept going.
 
I just missed being a statistic once myself involving a dump truck. They were building the Beltway 8 Tollway on my side of town and I was driving on the feeder. As I passed a light a dump truck came around the U-turn with a full load of dirt. He was driving too fast and the truck tipped over less than a car length behind me. A second or less slower and I would have been under it all.
 
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