Strange road debris...

[W8NONU]

What are some of the strangest items you have had to swerve, dodge, etc. on a street or highway.

 

Here in the Oklahoma plains we have the usual sand, gravel, oil, leaves, etc, but I am talking about unusual stuff!

 

I have had the pleasure of dodging a six foot long four by four, a couch, a 3 ton home air conditioner, a washing machine, a TV, a rail road tie, in the spring lots of turtles, pot holes that look like in ground pools......

 

So, what have you seen?

[loujack]

A 12 - 14 foot section of Steel "I" beam was very interesting. Also, a large box that flew out of the back of a pickup that was filled to the rim with packing foam "peanuts". As bad as it was for the environment, it was pretty amusing watching it swirl all over the place.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

About 6 feet of nose to tail iguana was the latest.

People get these from exotic pet shops down here, not realizing that they are gonna grow pretty large. When they outgrow the fish tank or budget for feeding them, they get dumped out in the local flood control canal. They thrive in the habitat and I see them at least once a week. I'm not even sure where they come from but damn, that is one big lizard. Fast too.

[dwightm]

Stangest...

 

A twenty foot extension ladder in the fast lane on I480, I went around that.

 

A spider big enough to see from about 120 ft on RT 16 in WV. I went around that one as well since I couldn't tell what was meandering accros the road until I was almost on it. The rider following came back on the radio with "Damn that was a big spider!"

[Matts_12GS]

A pappa san chair complete with cushion sitting in the left lane under an overpass.

[motorman587]

Yesterday a loaf of bread, wheat I think.

[subvet]

Came across a silver cake pan with a beautiful chocolate birthday cake inside, sitting in the middle of an intersection once. Moved it to the shoulder of the road with the hope that someone would retrieve it and have a happy birthday after all.

[AZJerry]

Two wooden pallets came off a dumpster. One hit just below the windshield of my Jeep. I don't like to think what it would have been like if I was on the bike.

A 40 gallon galvanized horse watering trough on the freeway in Phoenix.

[Quinn]

I was following a dumptruck on the beltline in Raleigh when I noticed that the tarp covering the back was starting to tear. About the time the first item fell out, I was moving into a further lane. From two lanes away, I watched as the tarp finished tearing and all the contents came pouring out onto the highway. No idea why the only thing holding stuff in was a tarp, but glad I moved away in time.

[PRC]

Couple of "Star Wars" X-Wing type fighter toys! I guess some kids lost 'em out the back of a pick up....This was on US 84 between Thomasville and Boston, GA.

[keithb]

You are following to many people emptying out their mobile home to make room for more junk!!

[MotoBoy]

A hundred foot contractor grade 12-3 extension cord ... swerve, brake, run, drag out of traffic, scratch head, load ... still have it!

[Calvin (no socks)]

A Lazyboy in a curve...

a utility box full of coax connectors and cable installation gizmos...I still have that...

Alligator on the horizon on a desolate stretch in South Georgia... disapeared into the ditch on my side of the road as I approached.... I thought it was a tire carcass...

[tobyzusa]

A six foot aluminim step-ladder, that was open and laying on its side across the lane (in a driving rain storm so visibility was close to zero).

[StuGotz]

Two cayacks still strapped to a rack on the top of a Jetta on I580, Altamont pass, SF Bay area...very windy, guess the owners had not secured properly.

 

The entire rack came off with cayacks still attached, the whole package did a lift like when a F16 peels out of formation to the rear..

 

These cagers never stopped... just left the debris for others to dodge.

 

MB>

[BWS]

Ladders,flying plwood,coolers all the usual in 30+ years.Last one was saw me and a bud following a bridge being hauled in pcs. last year.We were deep in WVa. on rt 16 following this super slo-mo truck/bridge uphill when a rather big 10" d.x 3'long pce of pipe came off.It rolled right between us.It was all in slow motion...we were both wondering what the cars behind us were going to do?

 

One of the best stories comes from years ago......was strafing the Blue Ridge and came up on a pr of Grouse.They were in the middle of the rd staring at each other.Thought SURELY they would be gone by the time I got to'm.Nope,went right between them at speed......checking my 6 they were ruffled a bit but continued the "staredown".

 

Another time,again in mnts. came between a bigazz Hawk and what appeared to be his mouse dinner.He had to make a last second detour on his strafe and lost his quarry.Started laughing in my helmet at what happened as he flew off.About five seconds and a cpl turns later that very miffed Hawk took a serious attempt at taking me out!I hadn't noticed the few turns all were within a larger bowl in the side of the mnt.He made a beeline and 'bout took my head off.Best of luck,BW

[Ken H.]

A twenty foot extension ladder in the fast lane on I480, I went around that.

Same for me, but there was no going around it. I stood up a bit at the last second and the bike went over it surprisingly well. Actually it taught me a bit that a bike will go over at speed more than what one might expect. Sometimes not panicking and doing anything rash is the right answer.

[W8NONU]

You are closer to the truth than you know. There are a lot of people renting in the Tulsa area and it seems like they move every six months. I don't think any of them know how to close a trailer gate or tie a knot to keep things from falling off or out of something.

[rocks]

Queen size mattress flying though the air

[hellmutt]

A five gallon sheetrock bucket flew out of a boat being towed by a pickup, crossed three lanes of traffic and was headed for my front wheel when it hit the front end of the car in the lane next to me, it was launched well out in front of me and off the side of the road. Mom must be looking out for me from the other side!

[Mike]

An 80 gallon steel drum (apparently empty) on I-40 in Tennessee. It was a steep uphill section, and the thing was rolling erratically across several lanes of traffic. I just stopped and pulled over to the shoulder until it finally rolled off the road--there was no way to predict which way it was going to go.

[leikam]

The strangest thing I've seen lately was a steel framed box (something like this picture ) that measured probably 6x4x10 feet. Before it hit the roadway and broke, it had been in the back of a pickup truck doing around 70mph.

 

Speaking of frames, I also saw a new HD frame sitting in the median a few months ago. That's one I thought about going back for. It still had the cardboard and saran wrap on. I imagine it flew out of somebody's truck, but how it ended up out of lanes I'll never know. And speaking of HD parts, I recently came across a box of exhaust pipes looking rather worse for wear.

[Laura]

Shamu the whale.

 

He was fully inflated and (temporarilly) tied to the top of a van coming north from the seashore in NJ. It was up ahead of us and I just knew Shamu was going to bust loose and his head was riding higher than his tail in highspeed. All was okay until they went through the toll booth slowly then picked up speed again. Shamu must have shifted and busted loose.

 

We were in the exteme left lane and they were 4 lanes over on the Garden State Parkway.....we cracked the throttle and left the kaos behind us. In my rearview I could see Shamu getting tossed in the air from car to car like a beachball in the crowds of a ballgame.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Dodged a snake in Torrey in May '03. It was laying across the outer 2/3 of the lane; we were all riding near the centerline, so there wasn't any action to be taken, but it was kind of a surprise.

 

Mayhem '05, dodged a turtle. Thought it was a rock in the middle of my lane, and took a path just to the left of it. Just before I got to it, the rock grew legs and shoved itself a good 6-8 inches to the left of where it was. Ended up just about running it over.

[Lone_RT_rider]

Mayhem '05, dodged a turtle....

 

Don't forget the Kamakazi rabbit at Mayhem that year. I am pretty sure he was just challenging me to a race. He had heard that RT's just were not that fast.

 

Shawn

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Mayhem '05, dodged a turtle....

 

Don't forget the Kamakazi rabbit at Mayhem that year. I am pretty sure he was just challenging me to a race. He had heard that RT's just were not that fast.

 

Shawn

 

Oh god, that rabbit...

 

Cruising through the campground about 15-20 MPH, you in front of me. A rabbit shoots out of the woods and aims for the side of your bike. At the last second, he realizes that now is a particularly bad time to cross, and he banks hard. Suddenly he's running parallel to your bike, directly underneath the sidecase. Lasted for a second or two before he decided it was all too weird and headed back into the woods.

[big-t]

 

 

Aluminum lawn chairs,especially the el cheapo versions,that are usually found in the back of a pickup on the way back from a camping weekend.

 

About 55mph they just seem to float out of bed and only the good lord knows which way they are headed

[cgs500]

I spent 9 months in Mississippi after hurricane Katrina..saw alot of stuff flying out of the debris trucks. Outside of that I was in the SB lane on RT 11 in Ashtabula Co Ohio near the Seven Hills Rd exit. I saw what I thought was a pineapple shaped steel object in the middle of the road. Just as I slowed and pulled over another person in the NB lanes pulled over into the median. He had turned around unsure of what he had seen. It was a grenade!!! I had called 911 and a state trooper arrived after about 10 mins. I was parked about 400 feet from it so he took out binoculars and was able to tell it had a hole in the bottom. It was a practice grenade but the fuse was intact.

 

That has to be the strangest thing out side of the Mississippi experience, there I was dodging homes in the road, and I have the pictures to prove it.

[SageRider]

1) Extension ladder in line with the lane I was in. Van hid from my view view until the van passed over it. I was lucky. I was in the right side of the lane and the ladder was in the left side of the lane.

 

2) Pivot pin which holds the shovel of a backhoe on the arm came off a trailer in front of me at freeway speed. I was able to slow faster than it did and avoid.

 

3) Hit and bounced over a spare tire in a freeway interchange once. Was driving a mustang convertible which bounced in the air and landed with the tire under the rear axle. Limited slip rear axle provided enough drive to be able to drive off of it. Amazingly enough, only damage to car was bent bumper to frame reinforcement bars which were standard on the convertible.

 

4) Mormon crickets - Depending on the time of year and location here in northern Nevada, the road can be solid red/brown and slick from all the cricket kill.

[AdventurePoser]

A kitchen sink....no kidding! Between the lanes on one of the local freeways.

 

Cheers,

Steve in So Cal

[skinny_tom (aka boney)]

Benicia_RT_GT's side stand wire deployment thingy from his RT. The whole thing came off at highway+ speed. If I didn't duck, it would have hit me in the head.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

Funny you should mention the snake thing, Mitch.

A couple of years ago, when I was still active in drag racing, I made a pass on my nitrous bike, pulled off the shutdown area and was waiting for my push back to the pits. Got off the bike and took off my helmet, gloves and top part of my leathers and did a little walk around. Found about 5 feet of snake wrapped around the axle of my wheelie bars. Don't know when he climbed aboard but getting dragged down the track at 170 mph didn't do him very much good.

[NoHeat]

Ugh.

 

Reading this thread is enough to make me not want to ride. Mattresses, plywood and wooden pallets flying through the air? Ladders, sofas and air conditioners on the road?

 

Maybe the most amazing thing is that stuff doesn't fall off trucks more often than it does. But I really don't want to imagine hitting any of it. Well, okay, John's loaf of bread doesn't worry me, but the rest of it does.

[KER]

Me and a co-worker were driving down the freeway in the #1 lane and there was a small truck with a camper shell in front of us, and tied to the top of it was a 55 gallon plastic drum inside a cardboard box that was being held down with a bungee cord! As i was thinking about how badly that was tied down it started to slip out of the box and there it went @ 70mph onto the ground right in front of us. Luckily we saw it fast enough to slow down and it took a good bounce and rolled arcoss three lanes of highway onto the shoulder. The guy had no clue that it had come out. On a separate note, we were escort a "toys for tots" Harley run when we made it out to a rural area in the city, out comes a dog chasing a jack rabbit across the road, a couple of bikes were able to miss the dog but then it slammed into one of the bikes and down they went, luckily they were only going about 25mph. Everyone was fine, and it made a great story for them to tell!

[tallman]

Ugh.

 

Reading this thread is enough to make me not want to ride. Mattresses, plywood and wooden pallets flying through the air? Ladders, sofas and air conditioners on the road?

 

Maybe the most amazing thing is that stuff doesn't fall off trucks more often than it does. But I really don't want to imagine hitting any of it. Well, okay, John's loaf of bread doesn't worry me, but the rest of it does.

 

What John didn't tell you was the loaf of bread was in a shopping cart.

For me, starting with inanimate objects, probably a charcoal grill, coming back from the coast. I've also seen all manner of PFD's, coolers, tarps, bathing suits, towels, etc... fly out of a boat being trailered back from the coast too.

Animate, easy, Al-e-gator.

[AviP]

This is probably going to sound disgusting, that's why I need to post it. My brother and his friend were riding along an Indian highway at night when they saw something on the road. His friend went over it. My brother barely missed it. As they went passed, they realized it was a smashed beyond recognition human body. Lots of heavy trucking in the area. Obviously like any good citizen of India, they did nothing about it because you bear the brunt of any investigation as a suspect if you do so.

[elwoodpone]

How about a river of gypsy-moth caterpillars with the traction coefficient of goose poo. Oh, and the best part was the "guard rail" on this particular road is constructed of truck sized boulders. As I was planning my launch over the rocks into the woods the tires got into the sand on the shoulder and aquired enough traction that I was able to stop a few inches from the closest boulder. I spent a half hour or so atop said rock chain smoking and contemplating my mortality.

 

As an aside, squashed caterpillars do not easily clean off hot surfaces.

[JustKrusen]

Came around a bend on I71 over I480 in Cleveland only to find a mattress blocking my lane. Dodged it and found the box spring but missed it also.

 

Same curve, a truck lost about 50 2x4's. Somehow managed to miss them all.

 

Same curve, junk truck lost a V8 engine block off the back. Lucky for me the engine went over into oncoming traffic. Unfortunately the driver of the car it landed on was killed.

[pmdave]

The one "road find" I can't understand is a broken truck driveshaft, complete with U joints. I'd think the truck would be found a few hundred feet beyond, with the driver peering underneath.

 

In Switzerland there are lakes where frogs breed like crazy every spring, then hop across the road in huge masses. I've never had to ride through frogs, but I assume they get squishy and slippery.

 

Laws were passed in Washington recently to make losing loads a significant fine. Too many people getting killed by objects flying off vehicles.

 

I've seen people at Costco trying to tie a mattress/springs on top of a van with that sleezy plastic string. I can't imagine anyone so stupid as to think that getting a mattress at a discount is worth the risk of getting someone killed on the highway.

 

My wife saw a woman in a pickup truck towing an open boat trailer on which was propped boxes of junk, loosely "secured" with string and lamp cord.

 

A retired policeman related some of his service situations, such as patrolling the freeway, and coming up on a slow-moving car followed by a full size refrigerator on a furniture dolly, held to the car only by two individuals hanging out of the trunk.

 

When I see some loose or wobbling load, or hear a truck tire going whop whop, I take immediate evasive action to get out of the way. That goes for dogs riding in the back of pickup trucks, ladders on a rack secured by one or two bungie cords, and boats on trailers (with only one hook on the bow eye to hold it on.) I stay well away from big trailers towed by passenger cars, after seeing one rig go into a wobble and capsizing on the superslab.

 

pmdave

[dbenson]

Let's see,

 

Traveling on the Longbeach freeway, I had a close encounter with a car wheel. It broke free from a car on the opposite side of the freeway, bouncing into and over the dividing wall, hit road in front of me and bounced over my head. I figure the closing speed was 120-140mph. It was over before I could blink. But I distinctly remember watching traffic mayhem behind me as the wheel continued to bound down the freeway against the flow of traffic.

 

What else...still burning cigarette butts ejected from cars ahead. I didn't used to worry about these until one lodged in the crease of my hip and smoldered into a small fire in my jeans.

 

Swarms if bees. Highway 99 in California is bad during certain times of the year. Farmers have bee hives set right next to the freeway.

 

A few years ago, I had to dodge the gear shift lever from my friends Harley. We were on a road trip from Detroit to Boston. His heel shift lever vibrated off and I missed it by an inch or so. We stopped to circle back and pick it up. I got a sheepish look, followed by, "I know and I don't care because it's a HD"

[E30TECH]

I've seen people at Costco trying to tie a mattress/springs on top of a van with that sleezy plastic string. I can't imagine anyone so stupid as to think that getting a mattress at a discount is worth the risk of getting someone killed on the highway.

 

The problem is, they dont think. They figure its only around the corner.

 

...coming up on a slow-moving car followed by a full size refrigerator on a furniture dolly, held to the car only by two individuals hanging out of the trunk.

I can't even come up with words

 

That goes for dogs riding in the back of pickup trucks

 

People that do that without securing the dog(s) should have their head cracked with a hammer.

[AndyT]

In my car going out the Pa Turnpike a tractor trailer wheel that came off a truck going the opposite direction bounced over the concrete median barrier and came into our on coming lane at about 60 or 70 miles an hour! Just missed my car and continued into the woods. I couldn't beleive it, and the truck never stoped or slowed down! On the bike 2x4's and furniture at various times! It can be deadly out there! My wife was following a truck which dropped some metal bars off the back which she couldn't avoid and ended up destroying the bottom and side of the mini van. Luckly she was not hurt!

[SeanC]

What are some of the strangest items you have had to swerve, dodge, etc. on a street or highway.

Note to self: Swerve and/or dodge strange items on the road instead of hitting them.

 

This might not sound strange, but a 8x6 sheet of particle board. Had it been on the road, it wouldn't have been strange at all, but flying in the air and crossing over four lanes of traffic seemed a bit out of the ordinary. The wind flipping it broadside at the exact moment I hit it seemed downright surreal.

 

Several years ago, I saw something shiny ahead of me. I couldn't make out what it was, only that it didn't seem very large and was moving erratically. It took a while for my brain to register what it was -- a garden rake bouncing end over end. I couldn't tell where it would bounce next, and because I had wasted so much time trying to figure out what it was (instead of doing something reasonable like, um, slowing down) I no longer had the option of braking to avoid it, so I aimed straight at it and sure enough, by the time I got to where it was, it had bounced somewhere else. Phew. The whole thing, from visual contact to realization to lucky avoidance took maybe 3 seconds.

 

And of course there's the Tommy Lift that was supposed to be attached to the back of a truck, but for some durned reason was sitting in the middle of the road at 0-dark:30. I really should have swerved and/or dodged that one.... D'oh!

[USAF1]

NE of San Antonio Tx: An 18 foot boat parasailing just above the trailer...... until the skinny little rope holding the front end gave way. Then it just sorta sailed off to the right and skidded along the shoulder for a ways.

 

 

Somewhere USA....coming up to a curve in the road to the right......noticed all this "crap" off to the side of the road.....clothes....dolls.....toys dishes. Came on around the corner to find that a van towing a trailer (the kind that tilts up in the front) had had the pin given way..... the trailer had tilted up.....the boxes stacked above the tailgate had fallen out and half their worldly possessions had strewn itself all along the road. The bad part was that they were going to have to unload darned near the whole trailer in order to lower the front end down to where they could tie/chain it off.....then reload it all!! Not a fun day in paradise!

 

Pat

[W8NONU]

My brother told me when he was traveling a two lane highway north through Illinois a boat came off a trailer heading south and was skidding toward him in his lane. Luckily it happened far enough from him that he had time to stop and the boat stopped its skid so there was no impact. He said he thought he would never get the pucker mark out of the middle of his seat though.

[E30TECH]

While driving my truck, I saw an axle from a garbage truck on the side of the road. It had both wheels still attached to it - stood about 4' tall.

[TyTass]

Thought I'd add an old one ... Was 16 heading to the beach having just gotten my license. On the Rte 50 Bridge into Ocean City MD, the surfboards on the car in front of us came off. The flew up into the air out of site and came nose down into the highway immediately in front of us ... and then bounced OVER my car completely. They hit the car behind us - cracked and caved their windshield - no one hurt. Was lucky on that one.

[Agent86]

A body....alive, but drunk.

[mikeR1100R]

A little U-Haul trailer came off its hitch on the vehicle in front of me while on a 2-lane road in CT. The safety chains obviously were not installed correctly or were absent entirely, because that trailer started whipping from side to side and finally darted off to the left across someone's lawn and smacked into a tree. I had hit my brakes as soon as I saw the trailer separate from the car, but it was pretty scary nonetheless.

[rocks]

A house.... or at least a part of a modular that seperated from it trailer on a curve and went sailing into the woods!!