Strange things you've been hit by while driving

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Inspired by Turbo Dog’s tale of runaway boats, I decided to ask you all what odd things you’ve been hit by while piloting your vehicle.

Me? A dishwasher (well, part of one anyhow). A couple of years ago driving on the 8 West in San Diego I was a few car lengths back and one lane to the right of a small pickup with two boxed dishwashers in the bed. I don’t remember seeing a bump in the road, but there must have been one because all of a sudden (as is usually the case with these type of things), one of the dishwashers levitated something like ten feet above the pickup’s bed and hung in the air for a second as though it was scouting out a good car to land on. Fortunately for me that car was the new Toyota MR2 in the lane next to mine (but it must have had bad aim as it only hit one of the front quarter panels…no carnage this time). Though a piece of the washer did come flying toward my car, we managed to escape with only a little scratch. (But still, it’s fun to say I was hit by a dishwasher.) We all pulled over and watched bits of the now-obliterated washer cause some major traffic problems. Kinda fun, actually (as long as no one losses an eye).

So…what you been hit by?

2

A hamburger from McDonalds.

No shit, man. I was doing about 45 past a Mickey D’s, and a freaking hamburger smacked into my windshield. Scared hell out of me.

3

Tumbleweeds. Here in New Mexico, it gets reallllllly windy in the early spring, when all the tumbleweeds are dry and tumble-y. For the first few windy days, there are tumbleweeds everywhere. I see lots of drivers swerve to avoid them, but I like to ram them when possible. They can be huge, 4 or 5 feet tall sometimes, but they explode when they meet the front of my mini-van. It’s lots o’ fun.

4

This wasn’t something that hit me, more like I ran over it. I was scared though. I had just gotten off work and was driving home. There was a lot of traffic and I was looking for people in the crosswalk when I saw something in the road. Too late to swerve to miss it, I ran right over it. My tire must have hit it at just the right angle, I heard a clunk and something was dragging underneath my car. I pulled over and looked underneath…it was a big metal piece, I think it probably came off of a big truck. I was shaped like a ), and was 1.5’-2’ long. It had punctured the underneath of my car and emerged right under the driver’s seat…where I was sitting! I pulled it out and threw it in the backseat. I kept thinking if I had been going faster it would have came right through the seat, into my butt! :eek:

5

More annoying than strange, but an aluminum ladder. Some yahoo was driving around with it in the back of their pick-up without any type of tie-down whatsoever. It could easily have killed someone or caused a major pile-up. When the owner came back to claim it, did he proffer any type of apology? Nope. When I calmly asked him if he was afflicted with any type of mental disability, he simply stated that, “People make mistakes.” As I saw him reload the ladder ** in the exact same fashion and prepare to leave**, I not so jokingly offered to knock some sense into his addled pate, but another motorist (who incidentally sustained the bulk of the damage) talked me down and phoned in the idiot’s license plate to the police.

6

I wasn’t the one driving, but our vehicle was hit by a one-kilogram rock last night. Deliberately, I might add. It smashed through the window and hit the opposite window less than a foot from my head. I love Northern Ireland :frowning:

7

I got hit by a canoe.

I was driving along in the slow lane on I-90 and I look back and this guy with a trailer full of canoes was coming up in the fast lane. One of the canoes had slid sideays so it was perpendicular to the flow of traffic and was sticking out a good 12-15 feet.

I noticed it too late and the guy was guying so fast the canoe hit me from behind. I sped up and tried signaling to the driver and the guy infront of me did too, finally the guy figured it out and pulled over. Strange sight to see in your rear view.

8

Me? A cow. People finally stopped harrassing me about it when my sister got hit by…

A recliner. And that was the source of countless jokes until my aunt got hit by…

A tire that had come off a pickup travelling in the oncoming lane of I-35.

9

I was driving with my friend when a bird hit and became embedded in the windshield. Scared the shit out of us, and we almost drove off the side of the rode.

The insurance even covered it, too!

10

Deer, twice–once while I was at a complete stop–and I’ve had close calls with them dozens of times. I’ve also had bears run in front of me.

My cousin also got hit by a deer while at a complete stop…but in her case it was a buck, and it ripped holes in the door with his antlers. Another cousin–her sister–was cruising down the road minding her own business when a wild turkey rammed her.

11

A paper towel dispenser. One of the huge clunky ones in public bathrooms. It flew over the front of the car, bounced off the roof, resulting was a very large dent, and hit the ground behind us. We never saw where it came from or who launched it. I think we all sceamed simultaniously, and I think my mom almost wet herself.

12

My car’s roof was hit by a kayak which lifted off the racks of the car in front. Great hang time.

Last week I ran over the drive shaft of a truck which had passed me a few seconds before. It was 2:00 a.m. and a couple of hours to the nearest phone, so I had to drive bubba and his buddy for an irritatingly long way.

13

Dude, that’s hilarious. I’m totally going to do that one of these days when they have the 29 cent burgers. (Well, I say that but chances are that when actually faced with the option of eating or throwing food, I’ll probably eat. Me like eat.)

14

A stainless steel plumb bob, like the kind you see surveyors using.

Actually, I ran over it. I didn’t know what I had hit until the tire was replaced, and the plumb bob was found inside the tire.

15

The fender of the car in front of me.

16

It wasn’t actually me that was hit, but my boyfriend.

This was back in my teens. My boyfriend and I had been on a date and were driving back home with the windows down, as it was hotter than Hell’s Diner and this is Alabama.

We’re yacking and laughing and generally making merry when all of a sudden SPLAT!.

The entire left side of Cecil’s face and head was soaking, and I mean soaking wet! I got a little water on me, as well, but Cecil was drenched.

He pulled over rather quickly and I was like, WTF??? What happened?

He said, Some asshole just threw a damn water balloon at us.
He was so mad he was literally turning purple. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a guy cuss that much or that loud before or since.

Of course, it didn’t help matters that I was laughing so hard I thought I would faint. It was absolutely hysterical.

Cece went on and on about how dangerous it was and how stupid (which it was) but I couldn’t hear him for rolling around in the seat screamlaughing until my face hurt.

Other than my constant hiccup/giggling, the ride home was pretty silent.

17

I was going down the Long Island Expressway (3 lanes in each direction) about 15 years ago, doing around 65 in the middle lane. The speed limit was 55. An 18 wheeler came up behind me and started riding up my butt, trying to force me to either get out of the lane or accelerate. Well, I wasn’t prepared to get caught doing more than 10mph over the limit, so I didn’t. He started flashing his lights and honking at me, then when the slow lane opened up, he dove into it and passed me on the right, throwing an apple out the window. At 65mph, it nearly shattered my windshield. When I called the cops, the reaction I got was “Whaddya want? You know they’re not allowed in the left lane!” (Yes, officer. And you know just how far that argument would have taken me if I had gone up to 75mph like the trucker wanted me to and you had pulled me over…)

I never saw the other weird thing that hit my windshield. I was on Sunrise Highway between dusk and dark, going around 60. There were no other cars around, no overpasses, no places where someone could have been hiding near the shoulder waiting to throw or to shoot something – nothing.
All I know is that my windshield was broken by something around the size of a golfball (based on the way the glass broke). I don’t think it was a bird. Whatever it was, it scared the hell out of me.

18

A boat anchor. In the middle of the desert.

I was on I-10 between Phoenix and Yuma, Arizona and I was passing a large sailing boat being towed by a semi. He apparently hit a bump or something and off came this large anchor smashing into my hood then windshield. Fortunately not going through the windshield but caving it in quite a ways.

I braked and headed for the shoulder more than a little shaken by the experience. But the rope tied to the anchor played out as I backed off so I’m sure it looked like we were skiing behind the boat for a while. I finally got us stopped and the truck and boat kept going with the anchor bouncing behind taking a windshield wiper with it.

19

Did the boat people ever pull over, or was it a matter of coming home and finding either a frayed rope and/or a badly banged up anchor to realize what had happened? More importantly, did you get a license plate number on the dork?

And how did insurance cover it?

Oh, my story…Okay, this isn’t nearly as random or exciting as everyone else’s, but it’s interesting certainly:

Senior year in high school, some friends and I decide to TP a friend’s house. Only, we graduated well beyond TPing–we also filled the mailbox with shaving cream, placed liver on the front porch (which probably looked like some weird sacrifice, but fortunately our friend thought it was hilarious), and tossed some halibut (hey, they were cheap) around. Believe it or not, this was all a set-up for one of the TPers–a punky arrogant guy who insisted he was the best TPer ever (there’s an aspiration), never got caught, never would get caught, etc. So, our “victim” was in on the story–we told him when we’d be there, and to come out and make sure to play up the “you’re CAUGHT!” thing.

So, as we’re mock-speeding away, our “victim” notices the halibut and had a WTF?! reaction (more than understandable) and starts throwing it at the speeding hippie van I was in. One whole fish managed to fly through the passenger side window, then all the way to the very back where I was sitting, thanks to momentum–and hit me square in the head. It exploded on impact. I was picking out scales, bits of fish flesh, and ribs for ours. And ohh, boy, did I reeeeeeeeeeeeek.

It was funny, but not until a week or so later. (At least, for me!)

20

My husband just informed me they were likely mackeral (all I remember is they were fish, and cheap, and something I’d heard of before). Halibut are apparently huge (DeathLlama: “Nothing you’d want to get hit with,”), and being hit in the head of one would be much more painful, if dramatically more messy.

Whatever. It was gross either way.