Probably at the top of my “EEK!” moments while driving was being a few cars behind someone who had a couple sheets of thin plywood or paneling tied to the top of their car. At 70 on the freeway, it all became a multi-layer sail and was flapping up and down in the wind like someone was shuffling half a deck of cards.
The “I’m gonna DIE!” moment was being behind some crapped-out hooptie car being towed across the Bay Bridge. It started swaying a bit and I backed off to evaluate getting around the tow truck. WHAM! the left rear wheel snapped off. The wheel spun about and started rolling backwards at me. I swerved and missed it as it caromed off the side walls. No idea where it ended up.
Mine was pretty mild – I happened to be behind someone who was making a long commute on her doughnut – which wore out and burst. She careened off the guard rail but was able to control it and pull over. Luckily we’re almost in the middle of nowhere so there wasn’t much traffic around her. She called a toll truck to tow her to Waltham, MA (almost two hours from here). :smack:
Car crapped out about 40 miles from home in a small town. No garages around that would touch it (BMW. They mostly pointed and laughed). I was told by my (then) husband to make sure it was loaded on a flatbed, not pulled behind a tow truck to bring it home to the dealer.
Found a garage with a flatbed (or so I thought) that was willing to bring it the 40 or so miles. Loaded it up and headed off. Came to the first hill and the flatbed pretty much died. The driver kid (garage owner’s kid) assured me that he could make it to his brother’s house just down the road and they could use the (much newer and in better shape) tow truck that he had there to tow it home. And it would be just fine 'cause they would load it with the rear wheels in a sling yadda yadda.
Fine. I didn’t have much choice at this point. (I was riding in the flatbed/tow truck with the driver - also pre-cell phone days and now really out in the middle of nowhere). So… dragged the car off the flatbed and hooked it up to the tow truck. Had me climb up on the flat bed with the keys to unlock the steering to do that.
We head off and crest the first big hill. Start down the other side, get to the first curve and suddenly the truck lurches and I see the front of my car roughly next to the driver and on the left side of the road. Then it zips across the back and winks at me on my side (the side with the massive drop off down the mountain.
A few more heart stopping fishtails with the back of the tow truck screaming sideways across the road on two wheels (thank god no oncoming traffic) and the kid manages to get it under control. We shudder to a stop (both of us shaking enough to make the tow truck vibrate I think) and get out to see what happened.
Seems somebody didn’t lock the steering on the car.
They tried to blame me when we politely requested they pay for the damage to the car… 'nother long story.
I always give drivers using cellphones a wide berth. A favorite bumper sticker: HANG UP AND DRIVE.
A few months ago I was on a highway near the local airport when a pickup truck ahead of me started weaving very fast and very erratically; for a moment I thought it might even roll over right in front of me. I was able to brake in plenty of time and get around it, but it was not a pleasant experience.
When we finally arrived at our destination the kid unhooked the car and hightailed it out of there. Although I had a quick look around the car at the time it wasn’t until my (then) husband looked at it that we discovered damage to the back bumper and side (long time ago, can’t remember exact details)
I called the garage to tell them what happened and asked for the name of their insurance company so that we could make a claim. Dad (garage owner) told me he’d get back to me after he had a chance to talk to the kid. A day or so went by and I called again.
Told me that kid didn’t see any damage when he unhooked the car and that furthermore, I was the last one in the car with the keys, ie. I should have locked the wheels. :rolleyes::dubious: I pointed out that it wasn’t my job to do his job. We went round and round a few more times with him refusing to give me his insurance info. He then offered to do the body work on the car himself. I politely declined.
After a few more days of getting the runaround from the guy I went to the bank and put a stop payment on the check I had written him for the tow. Figured if I was going to have to eat the repairs I wasn’t about to pay him for the privilege.
He called shortly thereafter and we came to an agreement that he’d pay for the damage and I’d pay for the tow.
I think so. Once we locked the steering it seemed fine. But don’t quote me on that 'cause I haven’t a clue really.
I’ve seen some horse trailer set ups that scare the daylights out of me. One of the ones I was glad NOT to meet on the road but saw parked at the show grounds was a 2 horse bumper pull trailer with a tack room (this general configuration) being pulled by by one of the small boxy Jeeps (is that a CJ, I think?). And, if the owner was who I think it was, they had 2 1000lb+ horses in there…
My own personal adrenaline spike while driving was also with a horse trailer, but I was driving it. I was on the road from Chattanooga TN to Lansing MI, and I was nearing the end of a very long driving day. I was tooling along in the middle lane in a ruralish area, and a huge gooseneck or 5th wheel RV was passing me on my left. All of a sudden I saw debris flying over the other truck’s cab, and realized that part of that debris was the truck’s mirror and a deer. I just saw legs, which tells you how high in the air it was because I was in a 4x4 F-250. I don’t know how it missed hitting me or the horse trailer I was hauling, but it did. I had to find a place to pull over and close my eyes for a bit 'til the shakes wore off. The trailer I was hauling was a stock type trailer, very open and airy. I did NOT like the thought of what would have happened had my horse been presented with a dead deer flying at him, or being peppered with deer bits. :x
Here in Vermont we constantly get people going to get loads of hay in a pickup truck. They go barreling down our two lane highways at 60 MPH looking like this: Hay Truck
Just last week I had to dodge a bale someone dropped in the middle of the road.
I used to have a job that required a lot of driving. Around 100mi per week. Even discounting that, I’ve been driving for 30 years. I’ve seen a lot of scary stuff.
Some of the more memorable ones from the early-mid 90’s.
I was driving a company van, full-sized econoline, west on I-90 in NY. Moving fairly quickly in the left lane to pass a group of slower drivers, I came up behind a flatbed truck with railings on the sides of the bed, but an open back. They were hauling welding gas cylinders (O2), held down with cargo packing straps to the rails. One tank was very obviously loose, bouncing and shaking from the road and the wind.
I noticed a semi coming up quickly, also passing the slower traffic. I turned to my co-corker and said “Ya know, I really don’t want to be between these two”. So as soon as I possibly could I changed lanes, even though I had to slow for more traffic. Good thing, as about 1/4 mile later the straps broke, the tank went flying, hit the pavement and bounced right into the grill of the semi. Would’ve come right thru the windshield if I was still there.
I was driving myself and some friends down to NYC from Albany for the day. We were on I-87 and were driving thru a “falling rock” zone. Well, about half a mile ahead there was indeed some falling rocks. A multi-ton boulder broke loose and smashed a car flat. Of the two in the car, one was killed the other critically injured. Saw it happen and could barely drive once the NYS police finally cleared a lane.
Flew into LAX and picked up a rental for the week, on vacation with a friend. We were staying at my Aunts house in Cypress. Driving in the left lane on the freeway, separated from oncoming traffic only by a Jersey barrier I saw a pick-up swerve violently, slam into the wall and nearly become airborne into my lane. It made it all the way vertical before smashing down sideways into the center oncoming lane. Pretty sure a couple cars smashed into it but I was too shook to keep looking in the mirror.
These days I’m too jaded to really get worked up unless something is way beyond the pale.
That’s actually a pretty nice stack. I’d tie it a bit it I were going on the highway, but otherwise I’ve driven similar loads home untied no problem. I also don’t drive like a loon and I’m careful on corners and bumpy roads. That shit’s expensive (well, the good stuff is) and I don’t want to be dropping my $$$ off the back of the truck!
Year ago I was in college in Washington State, and we took a three-day field trip down the coast. I volunteered to drive the van back, and although I got very sick on the trip and was working on not much sleep, I was also young and stupid and insisted I was fine to drive back, not wanting to inconvenience anyone.
Matters weren’t helped much by the massive windstorm we were driving through, the likes of which I never saw before or after in Washington. I drove slowly and blearily but very, very carefully.
I drove slowly, that is, for most of the trip. We went along the bottom of a slope covered in Doug Firs, and I skirted around a construction crew that was out there despite the weather. From my right I heard a noise like a cannon-shot, and I saw all the construction workers look up the slope, panic, and scatter.
I floored the accelerator as a massive tree came crashing down the slope.
So that’s my story. Then there’s the story of a co-worker when I was at the local humane society. For the annual Christmas parade, she built a massive Snoopy out of styrofoam in the back of someone’s pickup. All well and fine, until after the parade, and she was driving along the interstate back to the office, and the head came off. I don’t know that it tumbled slowly, majestically through the air toward a car filled with children, who saw a giant severed dog’s head flying at them, and who needed therapy well into their adult years, but I like to think so.
Lots of these stories are genuinely scary, but that’s just nuts!
Years ago, I found myself driving along I-20 in east Texas behind a hydrogen truck–that is, one hauling liquid hydrogen, not running on it. The cargo section was a sturdy rack-like arrangement of cylinders. The driver appeared to be behaving sensibly. So, what was scary about it? A ball of ice on one of the cylinders, around what I guessed was a relief valve. One of the tanks was presumably venting hydrogen. It couldn’t have been accumulating, not while we were moving, but I didn’t want to be anywhere around it when it stopped. Maybe I was overreacting, but I decided it was a good time to stop for lunch, and to call the contact number on the truck. (The company said they’d notify the driver, and I didn’t hear anything about a boom, so I guess it worked out.)
I’ve probably scared a few people myself. I haul props for my LARP group, which essentially means I cram costumes and set dressing for maybe a dozen scenes into and on my truck at a time. I drive carefully with it, anything on top gets strapped down securely, and I’ve never lost any cargo…but I wouldn’t blame anyone for being dubious about it. I have driven with my arm out the window and my hand on some theatrical flats and doors on the roof, but I wasn’t holding them in place–I was checking to see if they were sliding or bouncing against the straps and ropes. (Less scary, but more bizarre-looking, are probably the occasions when I drive around with two huge “stone” blocks on the roof.)
