🚀 go-pugleaf

In <slrn6qqchk.aoi.joelga@pebble.org> joelga@pebble.org (Joel Garry) writes:

>Then there's the stuff falling off of trucks.  Some good threads on
>this every so often in the moto groups.  One that happened to me:
>driving VW camper van (the kind with an exposed propane tank under the
>side door).  Truck ahead starts losing railroad ties.  Have you ever
>seen what happens when a railroad tie hits concrete at 70MPH?  It
>starts spinning and dancing around in a random walk.  You can't brake
>to avoid it because it is immediately going slower than you.  I avoided
>it by inches by going in the left brakedown lane right next to the
>fence.  More luck than skill that it didn't nail the propane.

I had something like this happen to me, when a van dropped what looked
like a steel bed on the highway, at around 70 mph, ahead of me, in the
same lane.  At my usual 2-3 seconds following distance I had sufficient
time to signal and change lanes.  The vehicle just ahead of me ended up
stuck on top of the jettisoned cargo, and the vehicle behind me nearly
crashed into him.  Was I lucky?  Only to the extent that I could change
lanes without colliding with somebody.  It was not luck, but planning,
that I had nearly 3 seconds in which to react. The motorists ahead of me
and behind me each had only 0.5 seconds.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@spams.r.us.com>
a2i communications, a quality ISP
    "Any idiot can avoid automobile accidents that are his own fault.  It
     takes skill to avoid accidents that are the *other* person's fault."