Landmine!

[repsac]

Reading the driving posts reminded me of this story from my father.

At the time, we lived out in the boondocks, and had to drive about fifteen miles to reach town. Needless to say, trash was a common problem, primarily boxes. I'm not sure what people thought they were doing, tossing the stuff out, but it wasn't uncommon to have to swerve to miss a box as the wind blew it across the road.

One day, my father comes home and he's laughing fit to be tied. This, is his story:

While coming through the prison farm, he comes to a corner. Standing in the middle of the oncoming lane is this case of coke. (think 24 pack type box) It's standing perfectly on edge like someone set it there. As he approaches it, a mini van coming the opposite way moves not to pass the box, but to run it over. Yes, things like that do make a satisfying smush. The guy in the van hit the box square on, but it wasn't empty. In fact the box must have been completely full. There's this loud BANG! Which is quickly followed by an explosion of soda out from under the car. Dad always said that the van must have raised off the ground a good six inches and then skidded off the road onto the shoulder before coming back on. I myself never saw this, however I do wonder if the driver had to change his underwear after that...

[Cyphr]

What a waste of coke!!!

[Broomjockey]

I dunno, seems a fitting use of that gut-rot. Pepsi fo' lif!

[Geek King]

And that, kids, is why you should always avoid debris while driving, if it is safe to do so. Never know what may be in there.

[PepperElf]

Standing in the middle of the oncoming lane is this case of coke. (think 24 pack type box)

at least it wasn't the other kind. would be hard to explain to the cops if their sniffer dogs ever wandered by... heh.

[Rahmota]

Bummer. All you needed was some Rum and thats the making of a good time.

My worst debris tale comes from ohio interstate 275 around cincinnati. I was flying up the inside lane and wondered why the traffic was suddenly doing all these wierd manouvers when I finally got up to the place I found out why. There was a bed in the middle of the lane. I wound up having to swerve around and go into the grass to avoid it. Seriously a bed set up and sitting there like it just rolled off the back of the truck or something. That would have to be an interesting call to the insurance company to explain that one.

[digilight]

Does a tire bouncing done the highway count?

We were on our way back from Laughlin Nevada a few years back and saw a car being towed. A few seconds later we see one of the tires that was up in the air come bouncing done the freeway at us making us swerve to avoid it. Yup the axel broke while in the air. Luckily there was no accident as traffic was extremely light at the time and they pulled over and retrieved the tire and all was fine.

[CorDarei]

i've almost hit a cow one night.... doing 55 down a darkened stretch of country road and a black cow is just standing in the middle of the road(actually 3 of them) i was probably lucky to stop in time... honked and they mosied on their way.

one time before that, thanksgiving eve, i'm driving home and i see these glowing eyes in the middle of the road (again, country road, no lights, dark) so i slow down... sure enough, it's a horse (we were near some horse ranches)

other times, have been plain stuff, mattresses, couches, planks of wood, etc etc etc.

[draftermatt]

Just got onto the Baltimore Beltway from the Baltimore-Washington Expressway to find a wheel barrow in the middle of the 2nd right lane (4 lane highway)

[XCashier]

My worst road debris story had the vehicle in front of me kicking it up into the air.

We were driving down I-10 in Arizona, 75 MPH (the speed limit), in the vicinity of Casa Grande. The truck in front of us kicked up a huge chunk of metal and sent it flying. By the time we saw it, it hit our car. It tore up the hood and bonnet, destroyed the left windshield wiper, smashed the windshield, went through the steering wheel and stopped about five inches from skewering me.

It was a couple of pieces of steel bolted together, about three feet long. The mechanics who replaced our windshield identified it as a mud flap bracket. Had it not been bent on the end and caught the window frame, I would not be here to tell you about this. Nearly everyone we told this to said that God had been watching out for us, and I believe He was.

[cool2batroll]

I use to be an escort driver years ago (before you get all happy on the word escort there I 'escorted' wide load trucks to their destination and thats it lol). When I was driving back home through Georgia (I live in SC) from Florida I came around a big curve in the road and you know those huge green metal signs they have on the side of the road saying stuff like how many miles to each of the next 5 exits? There was one crumpled up and sitting in the road in the left lane of the two lanes on my side. I started to slow down because I was just amazed that something could have even done that to the sign and thats when I realized I was driving beside (to my right) the tornado that had ripped it down and crumpled it up. Needless to say I floored it and got out of there. It was kinda cool to see one that close up though.

[Becks]

I dunno, seems a fitting use of that gut-rot. Pepsi fo' lif!

I wholeheartedly agree!!!

I think that on MySpace I'm a member of a Pepsi-lover's group.

[Gurndigarn]

I managed to smash a bed across I-15 between Salt Lake and Provo... the weekend before university started. Once traffic stopped, it took us less than four seconds to clear the debris. We were motivated.

[blas]

I see trash all the time on the roads, going to and from work. It's disgusting how careless and piggish people are.

The other night, a KFC bag nearly flew right onto my windshield.

I remember one early summer day in 2004, when I still worked at the grocery store, there was a storm a brewin', and the winds were so gusty that garbage cans were knocked over, and garbage was blowing ALL over the mini-mall!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Years ago, when I was in community college, I had taken a class on weather and climate (Most fun I had in a college course and looking back I regret not considering majoring in geography or meteorology because I am kind of a weather geek). One night we took a field trip to the National Weather Service office in Green Bay to tour the facility and see a weather balloon getting launched.

It happened to be a very very windy day. So windy that the wind actually pulled up a bedliner out of a pickup truck in front of us and sent it flying right in front of our teacher's van and into a farmer's field.

It is very fortunate that didn't cause an accident.