Open letter to a New York truck driver

[Roadster Renovations]

Dear Sir,
By now you have probably noticed you have misplaced 3 heavy duty ratcheting tie-downs. I want you to know they are in the road about 100 miles outside of Rome, NY. I was able to avoid the first 2 you dropped in the middle of the freeway, however the third one came upon me so quickly all I could do was try to aim for between the the left front and rear tire. I succeeded, but since the Roadster sits so low it took the entire plastic from the left side. All I was left was the piece you see in my hand, which I might add is less than 20% of it's original size. As I looked in my rear view mirror at the cloud of black plastic debris with your tie down in the middle of it, all I could think of was, "Boy, I sure hope I didn't hurt your tie down......" If you have trouble finding them in that area, just look for a large pile of black plastic and it should be pretty close to that and the other two not far behind. btw: Could I have the name and phone number of the trucking outfit that you work for to make sure that tie down was not damaged? I will make sure to tell them what a good employee () you are.....
20140921_083810.jpg

[wyliec]

Glad it didn't fly up from the road and thru your windshield.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Dear Sir,
By now you have probably noticed you have misplaced 3 heavy duty ratcheting tie-downs. I want you to know they are in the road about 100 miles outside of Rome, NY. I was able to avoid the first 2 you dropped in the middle of the freeway, however the third one came upon me so quickly all I could do was try to aim for between the the left front and rear tire. I succeeded, but since the Roadster sits so low it took the entire plastic from the left side. All I was left was the piece you see in my hand, which I might add is less than 20% of it's original size. As I looked in my rear view mirror at the cloud of black plastic debris with your tie down in the middle of it, all I could think of was, "Boy, I sure hope I didn't hurt your tie down......" If you have trouble finding them in that area, just look for a large pile of black plastic and it should be pretty close to that and the other two not far behind. btw: Could I have the name and phone number of the trucking outfit that you work for to make sure that tie down was not damaged? I will make sure to tell them what a good employee () you are.....
20140921_083810.jpg

.......Just because you and I are such dear friends and good buddies ( along with Magdave ) .......In Vermont and I'm sure in every other State there is a MV statute stateing or similar ......Opr must and is responsible for securing the load on the Vehicle they are in control of.........very stiff fine for a violation........just sayin..........Mike ...Hope you/they can catch them

[SPYD3R]

just ........

thankfully u weren't hurt....

[Chupaca]

really glad that is all that happened to you both. Could have been seriously worse. Safety checks need some updating for many trucking companies...

[Seadog1]

Try dodging the crap these guys run for tires. That stuff coming at you is also scary

[mstngken]

Just had something like this happen to mine but mine was a chunk of cement in the middle of the road that some prick dropped from his truck a perfect square about 3 plus inches thick by about 6 inches square. I did the same thing got it to go between the front tire and the back was the best I could do with traffic in the other lane well it took out the back of the skid plate plastic and the one behind it while twisting the bracket that holds the trunk frame. Had to heat the bracket as it is part of the frame to get it to match back up to the trunk frame. Parts needed trunk frame $41 front skid plate $33 back skid plate $10 and $16 shipping. I just wonder if the spyderpops skidplate would have helped or made damage worse.

[whitjim10]

It should be a law that trucks can not run recaps. hit one in a car maybe not to bad, hit one on a bike real bad.visited states.gif

[ARtraveler]

Glad you got through it without getting hurt.

[Roadster Renovations]

Thought it caught the belt. Pulled over and no other damage though. Very close to the lower radiator hose on that side and there also is a wiring harness very low. No damage to the frunk or below it. Just the left tupperwear behind the frunk in back of the fans. I have just the fix for that when I get back home and get the bike up in the air. I'll post it when I get it done.

[Bob Denman]

For what it's worth...
You're okay, and the bike can be made okay as well!
There's a lot of ways that this could have played out; I think that you got away with about the best possible ending... short of a complete miss!

[Dan McNally]

It should be a law that trucks can not run recaps. hit one in a car maybe not to bad, hit one on a bike real bad.visited states.gif

Has hundreds of dollars worth of damage to my daughter's car a couple years ago from a "road alligator" . . . but, according to the NHTSA, the percentage of truck tire tread on the road is pretty much equally split between original equipment tires and recaps . . . see this link: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/nr/rdonlyres...thesis9309.pdf

[spydermyke990]

Best thing too would be to report it to New York state police, their commercial vehicle enforcement division has been cracking down, and they can follow up on complaints of unsecured and uncovered loads(I beleive it's illegal to run with and uncovered load in NYS after they have had fatal accidents from drivers actually losing loads onto the highway) It's scary that some of these guys don't even bother stopping to check on the tie straps, chains, etc for their loads, and the quality of the drivers in my industry(I'm an over the roads driver myself) has really gone down hill.

[Silvervette05]

By any chance was there a truck company name on the tie down ?

[Roadster Renovations]

By any chance was there a truck company name on the tie down ?

No such luck on the tie down. Would have been too easy. And, yeah, Bob I . Short of missing it entirely, best outcome we could have had. That thing could have come up a little farther and killed the lower radiator hose or the 20 odd wires bundled so low on that side I feel like engineer needs to be Gibbs slapped for routing it like that.

[vided]

Best thing too would be to report it to New York state police, their commercial vehicle enforcement division has been cracking down, and they can follow up on complaints of unsecured and uncovered loads(I beleive it's illegal to run with and uncovered load in NYS after they have had fatal accidents from drivers actually losing loads onto the highway) It's scary that some of these guys don't even bother stopping to check on the tie straps, chains, etc for their loads, and the quality of the drivers in my industry(I'm an over the roads driver myself) has really gone down hill.

Years ago ago there were professionals on those big rigs, today not so much

[spydermyke990]

Years ago ago there were professionals on those big rigs, today not so much

Sad but true. Most of the big "mega-companies" that train their drivers usually push them into a lease purchase program, in which the drivers are made to believe they are running their own business and operate like they own their own truck, but the reality is, they make less money and shoulder the entire burden of ownership, even though they don't really own the truck. It makes for a frightening level of unsafe operation since those drivers have to run very hard, often beyond legal operating limits, kept away from home & family for long periods of time, and when the driver finds themselves in financial or legal trouble because of the way the company is forcing them to run, they jettison that driver and replace him or her with another poorly trained and paid driver.