This could happen to anybody here. If you've ever driven someone else's pickup truck without checking the load, you're putting people's lives in danger.
This morning I went to pick up a guy that has been working on my crew. He was working on a different crew over the weekend. I come to find out he got arrested over the weekend because drove a partners truck without checking the load and a box of nails fell off the back of the truck and onto the road. It happened right at a blind curve. He stopped to pick them up, there was no way for him to pull off the road completely. A woman on a motorcycle, who whitenesses said has been speeding at times in excess of 90 miles per hour slid on the nails and crashing into the pickup truck being pinned under. She had to be life flighted to a Boise hospital where she later died from multiple injuries.
Now this guy is facing a prison sentence for not checking his load.
So if you drive with an unsecured load, you're playing Russian roulette. You should always check.
Posts: 1492 | Location: USA | Registered: 06-05-02
One time while driving down I-90 in Spokane, I hit a leather recliner that had fallen off a pickup. It was located in a dip, it was right at dusk, and I was going 60 mph. I had just enough time to swerve over and hope nothing was in the other lane. I didn't hit it head-on, but hit it with my right front fender. That chair was still flying all over I-90. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic, but if that had been at rush hour, I hate to think what might have happened. And right at about the same spot, someone lost a sofa off the back of another truck later. And I was driving along at 60MPH then, too. This time I saw it in plenty of time to see it and get out of the way. But that could have been very dangerous too.
Posts: 3476 | Location: Colfax, WA--the home of the world's largest chain-saw sculpture!! | Registered: 06-03-02
Once when I was driving a big truck for a living, I was driving through Topeka Kansas and on the city loop there was a guy in a pickup hauling a 20 ft trailer with another pickup on it. The pickup in the trailer had a washer and a refrigerator and a bunch of other junk piled up in it. Junk was piled all around the truck in the trailer too. The road was very bumpy and I was about 1/4 of a mile behind in the far right lane. I was talking to another driver on the C.B. radio about how this guy is going to cause a wreck.
About that time, he hit a big bump and the tailgate of the truck being hauled fell open. The pickup in the trailer started dumping the contents, first the refrigerator, then lots of loose junk and then the washing machine. It was about 5 o'clock on a Friday evening and the traffic was heavy and moving too fast.
The washer slid towards my lane as I pulled to the far right of the road. In my mirrors I could see cars being hit by the refrigerator and other junk. Several cars piled into the back of those closest to the truck dumping the junk. I narrowly missed the washing machine and all of this happened in a couple of seconds. We were calling for a Highway patrol on the C.B.radio, (They never answer you unless they are stopping you, but they listen all the time to see if they have been found out in their hiding places as they lay in wait for speeding trucks)
The truck behind me in the other lane was hit by the refrigerator.
The guy in the pickup didn't stop at all, he stomped the pedal and hauled ass! That dumped the rest of the crap out of his trailer!
I hope he was caught but like so many times when you drive anything for a living and see stuff like that, you just never know...
Posts: 3850 | Location: Somewhere, out there... | Registered: 05-31-02
Several years ago a motorist in Anchorage was killed when he was hit by a piece of lumber that fell out of a small truck. It went right through the windshield and killed the driver instantly.
As I recall, the truck's load had not been secured at all.
Posts: 4285 | Location: Anchorage, AK | Registered: 06-05-02
About 8 years ago, we were traveling along a highway around midnight. We came around a curve, and a driver coming the other way flashed their high beems at us. We thought there must be a police officer sitting up ahead. Instead, we saw something sitting in the road...before we could focus on it and see what it was, we hit it.
Turns out, someone had been hauling an old sofa and lost it off the back of their truck. We drug it under the car for 50 ft or so; sparks flying the whole way. It did $1800 damage to our Toyota, and we never found out who had let the couch sit there.
Imagine trying to explain to your insurance company that you hit a couch!
Posts: 2177 | Location: USA | Registered: 09-13-03
Once I was going along at 70 (yes, the speed limit was 70 on this stretch of highway) and I saw up ahead what looked like dozens of paper bags all over the road. Even though traffic was pretty heavy, I slowed down since I wasn't sure and there was nowhere else to go.
Once I got closer, I was able to tell they were actually short sections of 4' x 4' pieces of wood! I was going slowly enough that I was able to navigate around them pretty well, only running over a couple.
I can't even imagine what would have happened if I'd hit them going 70...I would have been throwing them all over the highway, and possibly causing major damage to my car, not to mention the possibility of losing control.
It can be pretty scary out there...gotta be on our toes all the time!
