Almost had the big one yesterday - pallet fell of a truck into our path!

[OlJim]

I was out for a ride with my Granddaughter yesterday. We were traveling a two-lane road doing about sixty miles per hour when a truck that was coming toward us lost a metal pallet. The pallet slid forward and actually passed the truck while heading into our lane. Luckily, we got past before it reached our lane. Then a short distance up the road was another pallet with a semi rapidly approaching. The semi managed to straddle the pallet, but its turbulence picked up the pallet and broke it apart. Pieces of the metal came flying out from under the semi but again luckily, we were not hit. Scared the Hell out of me then, and still does when I think of what could have happened had we hit the first pallet.

 

[TheMariner]

Holy crap!!! Glad you are both OK.

 

[pegasus1300]

Man, you were blessed on that ride, especially with Granddaughter along. I am so glad to hear you are both safe.

 

[Tango]

Buy some lotto tickets! nojoke Tom :spyder:

 

[Mikey]

I was riding with the bride one day, did a nice ride and was on my way home, when on a stretch of four lane road, two one way, two the other way, a sheet of thin gauge metal was laying in the road. The car to the outside of me went over it and got it hovering, skating in the air, and drifting into my lane. With nowhere to go, the only thing I could think of was to put the tire on it and get it back on the ground! It worked out thankfully! I have to admit, I lifted my foot as this whole thing was going down!!! You have to keep your head on a swivel! hyea:

 

[Albec]

When traveling I see this kind of thing all the damn time!

People who care so little about others that they can't be bothered to secure the load that they are hauling. How many people have been killed over the years because of this disregard?

We have a quarry near us and the laws in Illinois are clear, these trucks MUST be covered when carrying rock/gravel. Every single one of these trucks has a cover system on the trucks but do they use them? Heck no!!! I can't even begin to imagine what the owner of this business is thinking. How long does it take to put these covers into position? 5 minutes at the most, I'm sure. The owner should make it a point that these trucks have the cover in place when on the road with a load. Why not? Who knows.

Years ago, when I was going to school in Kansas (Go Jayhawks!), a gravel hauling truck passed me on the other side of the road and a large rock flew off the truck and cracked my windshield. Kansas has the same law as Illinois about covering the load. I knew which business owned this truck and I contacted them about my windshield. They laughed at me, literally, and refused to cover the cost. At the time KU had a legal department that helped students out when needed. I contacted them, and guess what? They had experience with this very thing and with the same company. A call later and the company was asking for my address so that they could send me a check for the cost of replacing my windshield.

Why not just cover the load?

 

[Dasmoetorhead]

Glad you came out OK.
I had a shovel come at me once that fell off the back of a tow truck. Scary.
A friend of mine told me he doesn't ride at night and his reasoning was , he said do you see all that debris on tne side of the road? He said all of that stuff doesn't wait for daylight to fall off. So night riding can even be worse.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Very glad you came out of that mess .... I hope you called the police asap , because those pallets were not secure .. & likely to lose more of tham ...Mike :thumbup:

 

[Snoking1127]

German Shepherd's can easily do 3500-4K of damage to a Spyder at 60 MPH. I steered through the accident unharmed. Middle of first day of a 6 day ride. Stop leak in the radiator, nerves calmed down in a hour and a half or so, and I was able to complete the bucket list ride a month before turning 80 years old.

 

[ARtraveler]

I am glad to hear you survived that very close call. The Lord was with you today. :bowdown:

 

[JohnRuckus]

A blessing indeed.

 

[BajaRon]

Pallets, tires (with and without the wheel) bumpers, boards, lawn chairs, coolers and sundry other hazards. I've even seen an axle laying across the lane. Now that will pucker your peepers no matter what you're driving.

I will say just this. If you do happen to encounter some serious road debris, it's much better on a Spyder than on 2 wheels.

 

[Raven]

Glad no one was harmed, very scary.
Gravel trucks now you don't even have to get out of the cab, just flip a switch and the box gets covered.
I am surprized the police don't crack down on them. Here the fines for that are pretty hefty.
For a real shock. We were traveling through Denver in a pickup doing about 80mph and had a rock smash the "BACK" window.
For a minute we thought someone had taken a shot at us.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Pallets, tires (with and without the wheel) bumpers, boards, lawn chairs, coolers and sundry other hazards. I've even seen an axle laying across the lane. Now that will pucker your peepers no matter what you're driving.

I will say just this. If you do happen to encounter some serious road debris, it's much better on a Spyder than on 2 wheels.

:agree: Mind you, I'm pretty sure that the entire axle with a wheel still attached coming out of the housing on a car/truck travelling down the road at 70 mph, then hitting anything and bouncing straight toward you with the axle aimed directly at the middle of your chest like a really heavy spear will pucker a whole lot more than JUST your peepers!! :yikes: nojoke

But as you say, running into any serious road debris is a whole lot better on a Spyder than it is on 2 wheels! :thumbup:

And a pallet is something pretty big to hafta try to miss!! Very Glad you're safe OlJim :cheers: And I do hope that no-one else fell afoul of the flying pallets, regardless of what they were driving/riding! ray:

 

[Quickdraw]

I'm hoping for a pallet of $100 bills to fall off of a truck in front of me.

All kidding aside, glad no one was injured.

 

[Snoking1127]

Pallets, tires (with and without the wheel) bumpers, boards, lawn chairs, coolers and sundry other hazards. I've even seen an axle laying across the lane. Now that will pucker your peepers no matter what you're driving.

I will say just this. If you do happen to encounter some serious road debris, it's much better on a Spyder than on 2 wheels.

Yep, I believe a two wheeler would have gone down when I hit the dog with right front wheel. If he/she had been moving a little faster I would have missed it. Little slower and I would have hit it dead center.

 

[ZFGBravo]

Glad you're ok, I don't even like following those people in my car, they seem to never have their load secured.

 

[ollicat]

I was out for a ride with my Granddaughter yesterday. We were traveling a two-lane road doing about sixty miles per hour when a truck that was coming toward us lost a metal pallet. The pallet slid forward and actually passed the truck while heading into our lane. Luckily, we got past before it reached our lane. Then a short distance up the road was another pallet with a semi rapidly approaching. The semi managed to straddle the pallet, but its turbulence picked up the pallet and broke it apart. Pieces of the metal came flying out from under the semi but again luckily, we were not hit. Scared the Hell out of me then, and still does when I think of what could have happened had we hit the first pallet.

God was watching you guys - maybe your little granddaughter being with you gave you an extension on life.

 

[700wolvy]

Pallets, tires (with and without the wheel) bumpers, boards, lawn chairs, coolers and sundry other hazards. I've even seen an axle laying across the lane. Now that will pucker your peepers no matter what you're driving.

I will say just this. If you do happen to encounter some serious road debris, it's much better on a Spyder than on 2 wheels.

Oh so true! I have LOTS of stories about road debris and stuff following off trucks. As most do who rode motorcycles for any length of time. Too many to go into but, I do feel a little better riding 2 up on a Spyder. Not tailgating can save a lot more than just rear ending a vehicle.

 

[BajaRon]

Oh so true! I have LOTS of stories about road debris and stuff following off trucks. As most do who rode motorcycles for any length of time. Too many to go into but, I do feel a little better riding 2 up on a Spyder. Not tailgating can save a lot more than just rear ending a vehicle.

It pays to be on your toes no matter what you're driving. But some of it is preventable. For example, if you ride behind this guy, you shouldn't be surprised when it ruins your day.