xjohnkdoex

iTrader: (2)

so this morning i ran into some debris on the highway. it looked like the base of some scaffolding that probably fell off a truck. it was about a foot long or more, with a square plate on the base that was like 3"x3".

anyways, this guy driving in front of me was ridicously slow in the passing lane of the highway and i was stuck behind him with no option to change lanes. he must've seen this piece of metal ahead of him approaching at least 20-30 feet ahead, but decided to swerve into the center lane probably 5 feet before the piece of debris, and nearly hit a car in the next lane over.

of course because of his pos driving, i had basically no time to react when i actually saw why he swerved. i ran over the piece of metal, it got caught under the subframe, and i basically had to cut across several lanes with the thing dragging under my car into the emergency shoulder (what little space that was) to pry it out. luckily, my car was still high enough to clear the metal in the front (lowered on tein basics), but the subframe was just low enough to clip the metal plate and stop it from traveling and possibly damaging anything further under the car (cat, exhaust).

and all i could think of was the seinfeld episode where kramer adopted the highway, painted over the lines, and spilled kerosene that newman drove over with a sewing machine caught underneath spewing sparks.

'you once....twice....three times a...YAARAARRAGGGHHAGG...OH THE HUMANITY.'

end rant.

CGTSX07

i feel for you, did u see any damage?

that kind of stuff has happened to me quite a bit....i've had no choice but to run over pieces of wood, bricks, rubber, etc. One time I had a piece of wood fly at my bumper, fortunately it only knocked it out of place a little and left no physical damage.

THIS MORNING, a huge rock flew at the black molding that goes up the windsheild and that is all scratched now...i hate highways and trucks...and not having a clear bra...

LuvMyTSX

My dad ran over a cinder block that was in the middle of the street once......OUCH. It was nighttime so he didn't see it in time to react.

xjohnkdoex

iTrader: (2)

i couldn't really see any visible damage. i found a new nick on my euro-r lip, but that could be from anything (rocks, the bane of the TSX's paint's existence).

it probably just hit the plastic lining and the tray underneath, or whatever metal chassis and base. at worst, probably just some rusting if there are scratches and dents. i'll have to take a look again just to be sure.

it just sounded a lot worse than it probably was. at least that's my hope.

lol @ cinder block. i think i'd punch myself if that happened to me.

JimHolloman

My most frightening experience with debris, other than a person laying in the middle of the highway, was when a flat bed truck leaving a foundry in Chattanooga spewed cast iron pipes all over the Interstate right in front of me -- and I do mean all over. Those metal pipes were rolling and bouncing, end over end, all over the place. Fortunately, not a one of them hit me. I let off the gas and drove straight because you could not predict in which direction any of the pipes were going to roll or bounce. By retaining most of my speed, I was able to get in front of the pipes sooner. I then pulled over and saw that all the lanes behind me were blocked by the pipes. I was wishing that I had had a camera, and a tripod, with me. It was one of those "once in a lifetime" moments. It would have been a disaster had the incident occurred during the day.

LuvMyTSX

Wow . I'm always nervous driving behind/near trucks with stuff on them, be it cars, logs, or whatever. I always try to pass them when possible.

xjohnkdoex

iTrader: (2)

^^totally agreed. i pass those trucks the first chance i get.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

I ran over a construction type extending ladder on the freeway which spanned approx. two lanes. It was too late to stop or change lane as the ladder was in the middle of a sweeping turn. I was lucky that I was driving my 4x4 instead of any of my other lowered cars. No apparent damage to the truck but it was quite a scare.

LukeaTron

I had a 3 foot long piece of 9" x 9" I-beam fall off a flatbed in front of me this winter. It was a ways ahead of me at night and the only reason I didn't hit it was that I had seen it sparking when it was skidding around ahead of me. I didn't know what was going on initially but I slowed down and started scanning the road ahead very closely knowing that something goofy was afoot. It was still bouncing around when I passed it and would have done massive damage to pretty much any vehicle. I called 911 and informed them of it afterwards. Hopefully some one made it out there before anything bad happened.

TS_eXpeed

Me too. This may be somewhat backwards, but I'm not as nervous with the 18 wheelers with cars. It's more trucks with logs, pipes, beams...all those things. All I can think about is that ER story about the man who was impaled by a steel pipe that slid off a truck in front of him. It kept him from moving or anything. He didn't even know it had happened till minutes later (which I find hard to believe...how the heck do you not know???) He had to drive to the hospital I think and have them saw it off right there outside the ER. Once they could get him out of the car, they got him into surgery to remove what pipe was actually still in him.

xenonhid

Thats why I love our TSX HIDS. They are so bright and the field of vision it provides is wide as well. I'm sure if your dad was in a TSX, he probably would have seen the blocker earlier and would have avoided it.


BTW, did you know our HIDS are brighter than the Lexus IS250's hids?

litesout

I was driving down the East-West Expressway here in Orlando years ago in my Neon. Traffic was packed, but moving. There was a guy with a landscaping trailer in front of me. He went over a bump and a gas can flew off and into the land in front of me. There was nothing I could do but slam on the brakes, but it was a bit too late. The gas can got stuck under the K frame. I freaked out, continued slamming on the brakes and cut off the guy in the right lane to get over to the shoulder. I then flung the door open and jumped down the embankment waiting for it to catch fire. After about 2 minutes, I figured nothing was happening, so I went back up. Had to break out the jack and lift up the front end to get it out. There was no damage, but it was still almost enough to make me wet my pants. Of course, had it piece of scaffold, I'm sure that Neon would have been shreaded.