Road Debris - they are at it again.

AMurphy

Few months ago I had the front seat of a van/truck coming at me, last week I clipped a splash shield from under some car engine, but the car behind me got it square on the front.
This morning, while doing about 70, a base ball lobbed over the center divider from the oncoming traffic and hit the windscreen pilliar just about half ways up. Man, what a crack came off the glass, luckily did not break. Inspected it later at work, It was as though someone took a good whack with a plastic mallet to the pilliar and left a small but noticable dent in it.

No idea where the ball went, saw it dissappearing up into the air.... too busy trying to settle my nerves to pay much attention.

lomb

i have driven around houston and dallas and u are right the first thing i noticed is how much crap there is on the roads there. alot of shreded truck tyres, never see that here. i found that very odd. maybe its the heat?

Alfasudcrazy

That's frightening - always worried about things like that when on my motorcycle - bearing in mind what a sting you can get from even the smallest pebble when at speed. :rolleyes:

AMurphy

Dont have to be in CA or TX for "things" to happen.

My mom hit a rock brought off a fence by a truck wheel and destroyed 2 tyres and 1 wheel. Also cracked the control arm, which snapped a month or so later.
Also managed to run over a small piece of monofiliment netting and it removed the fuel lines, cost $300 to repair.

unkel

lomb wrote:

alot of shreded truck tyres, never see that here. i found that very odd. maybe its the heat?

Noticed very same thing in Florida. Apart from that the roads weren't littered. Weird...

Worst thing that's hit me here was a golfbal right onto the middle of the windscreen, which didn't break

Strange sensation in the last few milliseconds before impact where you can see the ball coming towards ya...

A$$A$$IN

Recently had an egg smashed all over my windscreen whilst doing about 70 on dual carriageway, funny the few panicky seconds after the egg hit and realising what had just happened

samo

I was driving behind an AA van on the M4 last week, when all of a sudden the emergency lights came flying off the top of the van at about 120 kph in the fast lane.

Its the last bit of debris you think is ever going to come hurtling towards you - the AA vans emergency lights!!

Seth Brundle

samo wrote:

I was driving behind an AA van on the M4 last week, when all of a sudden the emergency lights came flying off the top of the van at about 120 kph in the fast lane.

Whereabouts on the M4 is there a fast lane?

Our man in Havana

kbannon wrote:

Whereabouts on the M4 is there a fast lane?

[scarcasm]I assume he means the nominally fast lane, i.e. the right hand lane [/scarcasm]

samo

Bond-007 wrote:

[scarcasm]I assume he means the nominally fast lane, i.e. the right hand lane [/scarcasm]

When you drive in the right hand lane of the M4 it definitly is in my mind the fast lane, the left lane doesnt normally go much up above the dizzy heights of 80 kph! :eek:

prospect

samo wrote:

When you drive in the right hand lane of the M4 it definitly is in my mind the fast lane, the left lane doesnt normally go much up above the dizzy heights of 80 kph! :eek:

I always thought that the right lane was the 'overtaking lane' , and was only to be used to overtake a slower car...

Can someone shed some light on this?

Seth Brundle

correct prospect!

samo

prospect wrote:

I always thought that the right lane was the 'overtaking lane' , and was only to be used to overtake a slower car...

Can someone shed some light on this?

very true!

Although in reality it doesnt work that way (unfortunately), otherwise the roads would be far smoother flowing than they are.

And I was actually overtaking a truck at the time anyway when the AA vans lights came flying towards me.

samo

/Note to self


Remind me to never reply to a thread again where there is any mention of right, left, fast or slow lanes.

LFCFan

something like the head of a lump hammer came loose from a truck in front of me 1 day and went under the car and made one hell of a dent! If it had bounced up and hit the windscreen I don't think I'd be posting this right now!

spockety

kbannon wrote:

Whereabouts on the M4 is there a fast lane?

There is a fast lane reserved to the left of a broken yellow line on this road. It's amazing how fast you can go in that lane without encountering any other traffic..!

Garibaldi

I've had a plastic football appear under my front wheel from out of nowhere on the M50, and on a bike, that ain't funny! How I got away with that one, I'll never know.
My sister had something like a 12" cavity block hit the bonnet of her car at 80km/h, thrown from an embankment on the Navan Road. Destroyed the bonnet, and the bounce took out the windshield. Still, she got off easy. The sniper could've shot her.
It's a jungle out there.

AMurphy

samo wrote:

/Note to self


Remind me to never reply to a thread again where there is any mention of right, left, fast or slow lanes.

Or any that use "nearside", "farside", "inside" or "outside" to reference right and left.

Squirrel

Was with my sister in a Micra on the M50 behind a truck carrying steel at the toll bridge, as the truck was pulling off from the booth, a large bucket filled with scrap steel came off the back of it, gave quite a shock when it hit the bonnet, and a fair bit of damage. Bet ya that company secures everything properly now

BrianD3

I've been lucky when it comes to debris hitting the car. The only incidents I've had are me hitting debris, rather than debris hitting me.
1) Hit a big rock that had presumably fallen off a tipper truck. Result: one new tyre needed on my car which was about two weeks old at the time :mad: Lucky not to break a wheel or sump on it though.
2) I very nearly hit a rectangular hay bale on the M4 one night. I was shocked how I instinctively swerved violently to avoid it, a very dangerous maneouvre at 75 mph. Should have just driven into it. A van which was following behind did hit it and shredded both the bale and his bumper.

I have seen a wheel fly off a trailer and fly off into the ditch without hitting anything.

Also, there is a pic on I think wrecked exotics website of a Peugeot 307 which was hit by a wheel that came off a truck. Wheel mangled the roof and A-pillar and missed the driver's head by inches :eek:

causal

AMurphy wrote:

Or any that use "nearside", "farside", "inside" or "outside" to reference right and left.

"farside" - you're thinking of Garry Larson. How about "offside"


causal

Balfa

It definitely happens more on american roads. The lorry tires is just because there are so many more lorries here, and they're on the road almost non-stop, so the tires fail pretty often. I've narrowly missed and/or hit truck tire debris on occasion, and the missus was forced straight over a huge chunk or tire. luckily it only pulled off a peg holding on a plastic splash guard under our front bumper. it didn't damage our tires.

As for other debris, there's a lot more of that here, as well, and i put it down to the popularity of open-bed pickup trucks. You see them loaded pretty damn high with anything and everything. I've had to dodge (at 70mph in 6 lane highways) wooden dining chairs, plastic fourty-gallon drums (i hope they were empty), something that looked like a printer, and various bits of uniquely-shaped cardboard and wood.

There are also way more dead creatures on the road. I put that down mostly to the fact there are way more alive creatures here

AMurphy

"offside", is that not a football term..... what's it doing wrt motors?

Well quiet a collection of loose and flying debris on your side too.

I had a co-worker relate a tale of a pig falling out of a truck in front of him.
However, my mom was relating a tale of a "box in the middle of the road", which someone decided not to drive over but inspect and found a sleeping baby in it..... Not sure if it is "an old wife's tale" or otherwise.
But I do know the local postman hit a dead donkey with his Honda 50, "a million years ago".
And I have been hit with flying wet concrete off a Ready-mix truck going the opposite way.
Loose pairs of truck wheels are not unknown, Mom lost the wheel off the trailer, passed out and disappeared over the hedge, bro lost the whole trailer and the other bro lost a BBQ out of the truck. (Fortunately none of these items hit anyone or anything of importance.)

causal

AMurphy wrote:

"offside", is that not a football term..... what's it doing wrt motors?

Well quiet a collection of loose and flying debris on your side too.

I've been lucky wrt to debris although yesterday I had to drive around some large branches that had blown off the back of an overfilled trailer (with no covering on top) on the M50 sliproad Northbound at Sandyford.

nearside = the side of the road e.g. at the hard shoulder
offside = the side of the road closest to the oncoming side of the road

- they are use in relation to lanes on multiple carriageways e.g. the offside lane would be the overtaking lane, the right hand lane etc
- they are used in relation to position within a single lane e.g. nearside position is sometime called the daisy cutter position (coz ur cutting daisys at the edge of the road)

They're useful expressions because they remove the need to refer to whether it is a left-hand or right-hand drive system you're talking about. The Gardai, Police etc. use them.
Sorry if that isn't clear - but my head hurts so ...
causal

Victor

Balfa wrote:

There are also way more dead creatures on the road. I put that down mostly to the fact there are way more alive creatures here

Nah, it's the chicken wire we use.

murphaph

When i was about 12 years old myself and my mother were travelling on the M7 past Naas. Car with trailer flew past in the overtaking lane trailer was bouncing as I remember. Trailer's wheel hit a sliotar sized rock which was propelled at serious speed towards our windscreen. It went right through the screen between us and landed happilly in the back seat! Windscreen obviously shattered completely blinding my mother who just hit the brakes. It was very frightening.

AMurphy

causal wrote:

......

nearside = the side of the road e.g. at the hard shoulder
offside = the side of the road closest to the oncoming side of the road
.......
Sorry if that isn't clear - but my head hurts so ...
causal

Stop right there.... no explaination necessary, cause I don't want to know or recognise the terms as either useful, necessary or valid. Their only use is to confuse and distract.

We have Right and Left, Front & back, if those are not good enough for the job, go to the "farside" and remain there.

causal

Actually it's quite the opposite. Right, Left, Front & Back are relative to a particular perspective, and can therefore be unclear and easily misinterpreted.
Nearside and farside are absolute, they are perspective agnostic.

Now either all the advanced drivers and riders in the UK and Ireland have got the wrong system, or maybe you do.
Nearside and farside are used extensively, and quite clearly in Roadcraft - The Police Drivers Handbook and Roadcraft - The Police Riders Handbook

These are the books also used by Gardai when doing their Garda driving/riding certification training.

causal

AMurphy

You are evil and obviously want to spread your evil ways and hedonistic metaphors throughout the hemisphere. Believers in this form of blasphemy should be burnt at the stake and their ashes scattered over a fast flowing waterfall or rip tide.

causal

LOL
I'll see you on the 'other side'

causal