Hitting objects on a highway

[roadman]

Wonder how many people who've seen that episode don't realize what Les Nessman's live broadcast from the Pinedale Shopping Plaza was a parody of.

Oh the humanity!

More specifically:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YY0xw5r1ro

Disclaimer - Since about the age of seven, I've had a very deep interest (some might call it an obsession) in the Hindenburg disaster - at one point I could recite most of Herb Morrison's broadcast by heart.  My reaction to Les's broadcast in the WKRP episode was to laugh out loud for almost ten minutes.

[davewiecking]

I don't think you know the meaning of the word "hint"...sorry...couldn't twist that into a Princess Bridge quote...

"Hint" in this case being a 20 pound sledge hammer. 

I could use that sledge to knock the extra "g" from my post...

[Pete from Boston]

I don't think you know the meaning of the word "hint"...sorry...couldn't twist that into a Princess Bridge quote...

"Hint" in this case being a 20 pound sledge hammer. 

I could use that sledge to knock the extra "g" from my post...

I thought it was a comedic road-related fairy tale I hadn't seen. 

[hm insulators]

I hit a turkey once as it took flight from one side of the road to the other.

Actually, it sort of hopped rather than flew, which is why it only ended up as high as the lower edge of my windshield.

I only slowed slightly because as God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

Hey, that's one way to get a fresh turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.

No doubt, the capital of road debris and objects falling off cars is my home city Los Angeles. My friend Joe Delurgio, whose job requires him to do a lot of driving in southern California, calls it "having a yard sale." Listen to KNX-AM 1070, the big all-news station in L.A. for any length of time, and just about every traffic report will have some mention of debris on the freeway. Ladders and mattresses are the two most common "yard sale" items on the freeways, but you name it, it has fallen or spilled somewhere on an L.A.-area freeway: wheelbarrows, surfboards, tables, chairs (in a calendar month, enough furniture falls on the freeways to furnish an entire subdivision), money (you should see the wild scramble for "found" cash when an armored car overturns ), garbage, fruits and vegetables, a spilled load of Dodger hats, and to complete the list, at least one kitchen sink. And when I lived in Los Angeles myself, I would joke that Christmas doesn't officially begin in Los Angeles until somebody drops the first Christmas tree onto the freeway. Recently, I took Joe's "yard sale" concept to a different level with Christmas trees on the freeway: I call it "a holiday sale at Macy's," or if the tree falls on the freeway just after Thanksgiving, "a Black Friday sale."

[noelbotevera]

I hit a turkey once as it took flight from one side of the road to the other.

Actually, it sort of hopped rather than flew, which is why it only ended up as high as the lower edge of my windshield.

I only slowed slightly because as God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

Hey, that's one way to get a fresh turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.

No doubt, the capital of road debris and objects falling off cars is my home city Los Angeles. My friend Joe Delurgio, whose job requires him to do a lot of driving in southern California, calls it "having a yard sale." Listen to KNX-AM 1070, the big all-news station in L.A. for any length of time, and just about every traffic report will have some mention of debris on the freeway. Ladders and mattresses are the two most common "yard sale" items on the freeways, but you name it, it has fallen or spilled somewhere on an L.A.-area freeway: wheelbarrows, surfboards, tables, chairs (in a calendar month, enough furniture falls on the freeways to furnish an entire subdivision), money (you should see the wild scramble for "found" cash when an armored car overturns ), garbage, fruits and vegetables, a spilled load of Dodger hats, and to complete the list, at least one kitchen sink. And when I lived in Los Angeles myself, I would joke that Christmas doesn't officially begin in Los Angeles until somebody drops the first Christmas tree onto the freeway. Recently, I took Joe's "yard sale" concept to a different level with Christmas trees on the freeway: I call it "a holiday sale at Macy's," or if the tree falls on the freeway just after Thanksgiving, "a Black Friday sale."

"Hey Joe, check out this free crap I found."
"Where's it from?"
"The 5 in LA."
"Wow that stuff is where you pick up free stuff! You're so lucky, you found a six pack of Coca Cola!"
"Ayyyyyy!" (The Martian novel strikes!)

[Jardine]

(IANMTU)

I think I've even posted this before here.  South bound on 132nd street just east of Springfield NE, I saw a very large spider (!!) in the road from far enough away (!!) I was able to line up with it and run over it with the drivers side front tire.

[shudder]

[Zzonkmiles]

I hit a live rat..and it survived.

I also had the misfortune of hitting a mattress at about 50mph. I really hate it when people driving pickup trucks don't properly secure their cargo before hitting the road.

[GaryV]

I hit a squirrel a couple of weeks ago.  It ran into the road in front of me.  I braked, but it was too close to stop.  Poor, dumb thing.

I've found honking at squirrels to be surprisingly effective.

I'll admit I haven't tried honking at a squirrel.  But most times when they realize a car is coming, they're already 3/4 the way across, and they turn around and run back in front of an oncoming car.  I don't know how they survived evolution with that kind of "intelligence".

My son hit a squirrel once - with his bike.  Again, the stupid thing turned and ran into danger.  Didn't do my son any good either, as he went over.

[dmr37]

(IANMTU)

I think I've even posted this before here.  South bound on 132nd street just east of Springfield NE, I saw a very large spider (!!) in the road from far enough away (!!) I was able to line up with it and run over it with the drivers side front tire.

[shudder]

why?

[CtrlAltDel]

About four or five months ago, I was on I-57, just south of Champaign/Urbana. I was behind a utility truck, like this one. All of a sudden, the wind caught hold of a two by four, and it sailed out the back of the truck, spinning through the air like a football, reaching maybe twenty or twenty-five feet into the air. Luckily, we were both in the main travel lane, and the board was traveling at a bit of an angle, eventually coming to rest on the left shoulder. So, it missed hitting me.

I was surprised that the truck just kept on going. I don't know if the driver noticed his dramatic pirouetting two by four or not, but he certainly made no move to pull over or anything like that. To be honest, I was quite angry at the whole event, and I may or may not have pulled alongside to express that anger as a function of my finger. 

(While I didn't hit anything here, mercifully, I thought my story was appropriate to the thread all the same.)

[UCFKnights]

About 10 years ago, I bought 4 new tires for my car the day before a roadtrip. Not 10 minutes into it, I had both tires on my passenger side blow out. I found a tire balancing weight lodged in the rear tire. Never before was I so glad the tire shop got me to get road hazard...

[hm insulators]

The other day, I had just gotten onto I-10 westbound off Arizona 51 and the traffic slowed down just afterward. It was a "yard sale" in the form of a portable mattress (futon?) in the middle lanes.

[tman]

I was driving on I-90 west of Sioux Falls when I saw an 8 foot aluminum ladder that had fallen onto the highway and was shredded and in tons of pieces. I moved around a few pieces. A few miles west, I saw a ~2004 Chevy Impala with its hazards on. I wondered why it was broken down, not being too old, so I looked closer. Under the car was a massive puddle of liquid (too much to be oil, ps fluid, coolant). I think he hit a piece of the ladder (at 80+ mph) punctured his gas tank and noticed that his fuel gauge was dropping. So he pulled over and the rest of it drained out onto the road... talk about bad luck.

[BakoCondors]

Didn't actually hit the object but came close and it still scared the bejeebus out of me:
Driving to a favorite watering hole one evening in 2010, I encountered a full-sized refrigerator smack dab in the middle of the #3 lane of eastbound CA 178 in Bakersfield. It was dark, I was going about 60-65 mph. The fridge was in the middle of a curve so I didn't see it right away and there were cars in the adjoining lane so I had to brake hard and dip onto the shoulder to avoid hitting it. I made it safely passed but I could hear tires screeching behind me.

Just remembered one from my 80s youth: I hit a humongous Great Dane with my parents' 1978 Ford Thunderbird (which my high school friends and I had dubbed the Golden Battleship). I was only going about 20 mph. The dog kinda shook its head, licked its chops for a second then went on its merry way.

[ET21]

After the groundhog blizzard, I was with a friend and a truck with all the snow on top of its cab and trailer hit one of the overpasses. All the snow and ice exploded and came flying at us. It was cool but scary as hell.

I almost hit a transmission that was dumped in the middle of I-88 one time during rush hour. Found the guys car about 500 feet down the lane with an oil slick trailing back to the trans.

[wanderer2575]

On a 2011 roadtrip, I was zipping along a twisty section of US-127 south of I-71, somewhere north or south of Glencoe, Kentucky.  I went probably a little too fast around a blind curve and ran over a two-foot log that must have fallen off the back of someone's truck.  It was too big to pass over -- it hit the undercarriage and stuck there, making a horrible noise as the car shuddered to a halt.  I about soiled myself; I thought the transmission had just dropped.  I got out to take a look (while still on the roadway on a blind curve; brilliant move).  I tried moving back and forth a bit, but that log was stuck tight.  I finally gave it some gas and dragged forward a few hundred feet to a point where I could pull partly off the road and the ground was depressed a bit, so the log finally dropped out.   

I have only myself to blame -- H.B. Elkins advised that I avoid this stretch of 127 and I ignored him.

[hm insulators]

'Tis the season, and right now the Christmas trees should be raining onto the L.A. freeway system. "Holiday sale at Macy's."

[Billy F 1988]

Not too long ago, circa about five and half weeks ago, I head home going past Missoula International Airport, but before I passed it completely, I smack some debris and I was afraid that it had punctured one of my tires. The right front hit it first. I couldn't see what the object was because it was at night and the road was wet. Later I found out it was a chunk of wood, but thankfully with no nails.

[Pete from Boston]

I hit a live rat..and it survived.

I also had the misfortune of hitting a mattress at about 50mph. I really hate it when people driving pickup trucks don't properly secure their cargo before hitting the road.

Me too, but I see far more mattresses tied incorrectly to the roofs of sedans, minivans, etc. than to pickups.  How hard is it to tie over the front of the mattress?