Make sure your truck is in tiptop shape before you drive it!!

My sisters in law were going to take their kids and my kids on an outing to Sea World today. (We have season passes.) I had forgotten to leave my kids’ passes at home, so SIL was going to swing by my work to pick them up. (I work fairly close to Sea World.)

She called at 9:15a for directions, and when she hadn’t shown up by 11:30 I got concerned, since it’s only about a half hour drive from home to work. I called my husband, who called HER husband to find out what happened.

Apparently, before they even got on the highway, SIL #1 and SIL #2 (both in minivans) were driving behind a dump truck. No problem, until the dump truck loses its flipping drive shaft and sends these huge pieces of metal flying all over the road.

SIL #1 lost a hubcap, but SIL #2 got three flat tires, and then other cars were also hit. One car had its entire side smashed in.

Fortunately nobody was hurt, including the kiddos. But the kicker is while this huge piece of metal is laying in the middle of the road (a fairly busy four-laner) the driver of the dump truck is staring stupidly at it. So my SILs are the ones to dart into the road, grab the metal pieces, and run back, preventing further accidents.

The dump truck driver got ticketed, and the folks are going to head to Sea World again tomorrow.

I routinly drive sub-standard, unsafe vehicles around. More fun that way. Every trip becomes and adventure! You never know if/when/how you are going to make it home.

I also especially like lending them to friends! I lent my 65 Ford to a buddy and he ended up in the Mirage’s (Las Vegas) flower garden when the brakes failed! Oh how we laugh about that to this day! I can just imagine the look on his face when he reached for the parking brake handle and it came off in his hand like a Warner Bros. cartoon! :smiley:


Build it, and they will come. Charge for parking, admission and get a percentage of consessions.

gatopescado I really hope you’re kidding.

Anyway a couple of years ago I was dring back to Oakland across the Bay Bridge when I ended up behind this guy in a pickup truck with people riding in the tailgate (illegal in CA but they were all adults so I didn’t really care, until…) I discovered the the trucks brake lights weren’t working. I of course discovered this the hard way when he slowed down and I damn near rear ended the dumbfuck.

My aunt once got hit by a wheel.

Not just the tire - the entire wheel. Came off a pickup in the east-bound lanes, bounced once, bounced off of the hood of her car in the west-bound lane, and bounced off into the ditch.

UPDATE:

The two men in the truck were very evasive when the police arrived…according to SILs, they did not want to turn over their driver’s licenses and other info when asked. So the cops got tired of their shit and called Dept of Transportation, who happily arrived and wrote citation after citation after citation. The goons in the truck apparently even tried to play dumb. Remember the guy whose car side was all smashed in? The drivers apparently commented on the damage, “Wow, what happened? What did you hit?” To which the drivers of the other cars (I think a total of six were damaged) said, “Your driveshaft!” So the drivers slunk off after that kept pretty much to themselves. Why do they try to play dumb when there’s THAT many witnesses? And to piss the cops off enough that they call DOT?

chique I was also driving behind a car once where the entire wheel flew off the axle. There were even kids in the car and I remember seeing one little boy jerk around to see what happened when the whole right rear of the car hit the ground. Fortunately we were driving down a residential street to get to the main road and they weren’t going that fast.

partially…:rolleyes:

I have a jeep that routinly strands me, and that is the adventure, but its no danger to anyone else.

My buddy really did end up in the Mirage flower garden, however, when I lent him my old truck. the line to the rear brakes blew and the fluid was lost. long story short, he ended up in the flower garden. the parking brake was not hooked up and when he pulled the handle in a panic, it just came right out in his hand. :smack:

Hubby’s aunt was driving her van when an oncoming tractor-trailer lost a wheel off the trailer. I smashed into the front of the van, totalling it, mangling her leg pretty badly, and contributing to the destruction of his uncle’s bass fiddle. My husband had the chance to examing the wheel - he said it was apparent that it hadn’t been properly maintained or serviced in a long while.

Aunt and uncle were lucky to be alive.

I assume you mean “it.” Yipes.

Yet another reason I don’t drive.

There was a huge kerfuffle a few years back involving a rash of lost wheels off defective trucks in Ontario.