I can count myself lucky that in over two decades of driving, I’ve only had a very minor handful of “close calls”, enough that I can remember every last one. I’ve been ran off the road twice, met an oncoming driver on the Interstate at night once, have narrowly missed being involved in a major accident maybe four times, and then there was the incident that involved someone in a Ford Explorer who drove up a grassy embankment before “sending it” four feet into the air at an off-ramp. But the most butt-puckering one I can’t count as a close call, because I caught it. While driving on Interstate 5 south through Tacoma, a ladder bounced off of a flat trailer, hit the roadway, and made a beeline straight for the lower grille of my 2006 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, where it stuck. Luckily, I had seen everything happen and pretty much smoked a set of EBC brakes to the core to stop in time, so there was no more damage than needed…just a small paint scratch and the indignity of having to pull the ladder out of the bumper cover. And, of course, the exhausting restraint of not beating the owner of the ladder with the tool when he came back to retrieve it.
Could be worse, though. A guy in Saskatchewan, Canada has had two very major incidents in about a decade. His most recent one involved an ax flying through the windshield and bonking him on the head hard enough to CTRL-ALT-DELETE some memories of the event off of his brain. Other than a cut on his head and the damage to his truck, he got off lucky…like he did years prior, when a piece of rebar fell out of someone’s truck and speared through the windshield and through the cab, just above his shoulderline. The man with zero luck, Mackenzie Peddle, might want to look at an up-armored pickup for his next vehicle choice, but his message is simple: twice in a lifetime is too much and he’s pissed off about it.
We’ve heard horror stories like his before. Our own Charles Wickam had an experience when he narrowly escaped a random flying object through the windshield. What about you?
Travelling through Atlanta, GA to see a friend when a WELDER fell off a truck. Didn’t hit it, but sure got my attention.
Travelling across Germany on the Autobahn
I saw a two foot length of exhaust pipe depart the car in front.
It bounced a lot but when I hit it it was on the ground more or less.
Made quite a commotion under the car….
On a motorcycle had a truck tire roll , bounce into my lane then
drift back – ’bout a pucker 6 factor
64 galaxie in hs – came around a corner and VW was on it’s last roll coming the other way in the middle of the road – had to weave through the debris field
including the driver before I could pullover ..
Had a tractor trailer lose its rear trailer wheels in front of me. They bounced across the highway barely missing a few cars. Everyone tried to signal him to pull over, but he wasn’t having it. Oh well.
Cresting a hill on Angeles Forest Highway at speed on a Sunday mid-day and having a large hawk dive down at a rodent running across the road in front of me and hitting smack into the windshield in front of my face. I didn’t know what happened other than the sudden dark spot and “bang” which fortunately did not break the glass. I turned around to find a sport biker coming the other way had seen it all and stopped to look at the deceased bird.
In North Vancouver , on the upper levels highway . Heading down the cut on the way to the 2nd Narrows bridge & Vancouver , A Lincoln Continental kicked up a stone with its’ front wheel & , tossed it in our direction . I wasn’t driving so I saw the damn’ thing coming straight for us , yelled ” BRAKE ” at the driver . The stone hit the windshield right in front of me & imbedded itself there . It was about 5 or 6 inches long 2 & 1/2 thick 7 slightly curved … shaped like a potato . I hate to think what would have happened had I not seen it . Thing could have hit my buddy in the side of the head ! Doesn’t take much of an imagination to think what could’ve happened after that ! ?? I’d have bought a lottery ticket for both of us that day … except they didn’t exist in B.C. then …. lol
I live in Mesa Arizona I was driving my Ford Festiva to Autozone at 11:30 PM and the guy in front of me passed out and jumped the median and hit a light pole. When the light pole fell it fell right through my windshield. I was sure that I was a dead man but when the light pole hit the drivers side windshield post it popped right back out. I ended up scared as hell but without a scratch.
Had a curtain side trailer center post fall off a truck in front of me, luckily it sort of happened in slow motion so I was ready for it. The driver was pissed because it was supposed to have been fixed the last time it fell off, they’re retained by rollers at the top.
Have had a couple of birds explode on the front of various cars over the years, best one was a magpie that managed to hit the only bit of the front of the car that wasn’t the lights or cooling systems.
The wife hit a kangaroo one night a few years ago, I was dozing in the passenger seat and just happened to glance up to see a kangaroo coming from the right. Direct hit on the RHF corner, only visible damage was the foglight fell out. Actual damage ended up being all the plastic in the front structure was cracked.
As I was driving past a baseball field someone hit a homerun over the fence into my grille.
I was in heavy traffic on an interstate at speed. When a couple cars up in front of me ,there was a truck with a ladder rack. One of the ladders came off and flew straight up. went over the 2 cars in front of me. wiping and twirling in mid air. It landed in my lane straight across my lane. standing on its edge. And when I hit it . My 67 Dodge pickup looked like the lead bike coming out of the gate at a motocross race .It hit my bumper all the way across.Jumped it like Bo Duke and hammered down and past the shedding ladder truck . Didn’t need to win another moto cross.
How about this…http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/05/24/gun-flying-through-air-lodges-itself-in-cars-bumper-authorities-say.html
On the freeway in the #1 lane when a 6×6 foot flattened cardboard box flew out of a trailer in the #2 lane. It landed flat about 100 feet ahead of me and was run over by the car in front of me, flew up vertical. I had three options: panic brake (dangerous!), swerve blind (even more dangerous!) or suck it up. It cracked my windshield but not so bad I couldn’t drive. I followed Mr. trailer and told him what happened. I ended up at a construction trailer receiving a check from his uncle Vinny. Very creepy but I got satisfaction, which is more than I can say for most people in my situation. All’s well that ends well, but the lesson is nothing is soft at 70mph.