Today we had to survey a roadside for underground damage to cables.
I was walking a 2 KM section and at one of our manhole covers was this muckle great lump of iorn. Its 200mm long and 35mm thick weight heavy. What damage would this do to you I f you were unlucky to be the recipiant of this pin falling from a truck.

We often get sandblasted following trucks ....that we can put up with that, but this crap could make a large hole in what ever it contacted. (SG 5000 that quarter inch plate may not be such a bad idea..........)

There was stacks of other stuff fallen off on this B road from cars. its the number of bolts that made me wonder. A while back some lads at work lost a set of ladders off the roofrack and a car following drove over them causing a heap of mess.
Any one had stuff come off and hit you?

PAT

some years ago my dad hit a fence panel that had fallen of the back of a truck.also just missed a truck trailer leg from an articulated truck in the middle of the M1.

A few years ago me and my brother in law had to bring a large sheet of plywood to the recycle center.
This sheet was loaded on a redicilous small trailer and the result was that the sheet sticked out above the roof of the car by about 3 feet,it was only a VERY short distance to the center.
After 3 minutes that sheet broke off with a very loud bang and the driver just behind us ended up on the side walk,luckely for him and us without any damage to people or cars.
It was embarrasing cause everybody in that street came to watch those two morons cleaning up the street from debris!

I was coming up the M5 a few miles before it joins the M6 the other day, to be met by a mangled aluminium ladder between lanes 2 and 3.

About 1/4 mile later, one of them illuminating warning signs wrning drivers to 'Slow down-debris in road'...

My sister ran over the propshaft of the Post Office wagon she was following when it fell off (!) lots of damage but thankfully no-one hurt.

i think, one of the worse 'didnt quite fall off' things I heard was that earth mover a few years ago. the digger arm swung out sideways when the truck was driving down a country road. It hit and killed the drivers of 8 cars before the truck was stopped. he got done for manslaughter. failure to secure load.

ive been hit by a huge ball of hard mud that came out from between the double wheels of a truck. it hit the placcy air dam of my mazda 323f and made a huge hole in it.

It isnt rare for crap to fly out of truck wheels like that im told.


another time a truck tyre expoded and i caught a lump of tread in the bonnet

big dent.

thats not counting the pheasant that flew out, hit my fiesta rad and dumped the water. had to get the little bastard off the bumper as he was hanging by a leg...

atb

steve

On the lighter side....

In South Africa a popular engine swap was V6 Ford Essex into rear engined VW Microbusses.

I was once behind one of these, in rather poor repair,at some traffic lights. He pulled off enthiastically and the whole engine fell off the gearbox and dropped onto the road.

Ihave also lost a kart trailer from behind a car, weird feeling as car suddenly accelerates and you see the trailer receeding in the rear view mirror. Fortunatly the trailer landed in the opposite ditch without hitting anything

cheers

Fred WB

I was riding my pushbike on the A61 the other day and was amazed at the number of various sized bolts and how many silencer rubbers were on the roadside. I thought if they had all fallen off the same vehicle it would be in bits by the time it got home. It was a bit worrying because I saw at least 5 wheelnuts. That's a lynch pin for a roadworks compressor towing link by the look of it Mango.

[Edited on 27/10/04 by Peteff]

i was once following a salvage transporter of the double deck type loaded with scrap cars.It had to stop suddenly at a junction due to another lorry pulling out in front of it .It didnt move off afterwards and when i got bored waiting behind it I saw why. There was a Renault 5 that had been the front car on the top level and it was laying under the front of the cab on its roof and was flatened to about a height of 2 feet.
Paul.

Wouldnt like to be hit by any of those things when out driving the 7! I'm worried about bits of grit flying up, let along half ton iron pins!

Here in the US if something is not secured to a truck (including sand) you can get a fine, which when I got mine 6 years ago was $1200usd (around $700uk), and that was because the tarp I used to cover a load of sand had a rip and sand was flying out at highway speed, copper got angry and pulled me over.

Things from a vehicle I've been hit by:

Mudguard from a car in front - hitting the top windscreen pillar.

Half a house brick (from between lorry wheels) hitting front of bonnet and bouncing over.

Near misses:

Me nearside lane on roundabout, Corus lorry outside lane. 20 ton's of 1" diameter metal rod. Load was shed mostly the other way.

Yesterday - a massive earth mover on a low loader M62 westbound. 10" square planks of wood 2m long supporting the said earth mover. One fell out into the second lane of motorway. Change of underwear required.

That's on top of the normal everyday accidents I see normally due to bad driving.

had a suicidal pidgeon hit the screen and countless little birds . and them bloody little flies in the summer a bugger to clean off

Personally, Spotted something coming over the central reservation of the M1 While I was in the outside lane heading south at a bit more than 70. took the foot ofgas and cover the brake, followed by an instant thud. A bit later on I recovered the litte end of a commercial engine Conrod from behind the offside headlamp.

Years ago when my sister was at southampton university a close freind of hers was walking down the road when she was killed by a circus tent spike that fell of a lorry.

Accidents happen unfortunately.

speaking of birds, have you seen the footage from the gumball rally. they had a bentley arnage t with the open lattice grill, and were travelling about 170 when they hit a sparrow, but it wedged in the grill perfectly as if it were still trying to fly away. i couldnt stop laughing. The most i've caught personally is a small bit of shrapnel that scarred the bonnet in 3 places then went over the top. still, i aint been driving that long!

tom

[Edited on 27/10/04 by indykid]

I saw something remarkably like that falling off the back of a lorry on Harry Lauder Road in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, must bounced about 5 feet into the air and for god knows how far along the road, thankfully I was far enough behind the truck to just lift off and watch the spectacular.

I was driving down by the docks one day when a rat jumped off a sinking uranium carrier and landed on my grill.
Rescued attachment Skippy.jpg

quote:

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Originally posted by Syd Bridge




The cattle pushed in the screen and roof, then the followers emptied their guts on him as he sat stuck there! He was only bruised, but he reckons the smell stuck for weeks.



so you and your brother are full of shit????

Cheers woodster

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locoboy - 28/10/04 at 11:03 AM

follwoed a low loader trailer being pulled by a tractor and there were 5 plastic drums about 20 gallon in size full of diesel ratchet strapped on the arse end of the trailer.

one of them fell off and was bouncing toward me took a random bounce and flipped right over the car! fortunately no one was behind me, i was honking the horn to no vail - farmer was on the bloody phone!

I pulled him over when i could get past (1.5miles) and told him about it, he said he would go back and get it, but turning a tractor and a low loader trailer round on a b road, no chance i reckon he just left it there.

Mate of mine hit a badger, stopped and got out, badger no where to be seen, a few days later a foul smell was present, he ended up levering a dead badger out from under the front nearside wheel arch with a screwdriver! - <spew>

and no we wasnt driving a cycle winged se7en at the time

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derf - 28/10/04 at 12:25 PM

here in the US we would call the badger dinner

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mackie - 28/10/04 at 05:15 PM

I've encountered large clumps of road grit (softball sized) falling from a truck (not a gritter), suicidal rabbits, pheasants and pigeons but nothing life threatening or car destroying.
Worst one was the pigeon which ripped off the rubber strip under my front splitter but that was easily repaired.

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