Dodged a bullet today---Never follow too closely!

[offcenter]

Hey gang, I was coming home around noon today in the pickup truck,
on a stretch of road that I usually ride on my Goldwing, when I almost got it.
I was following a flat bed/roll off/tow truck. Luckily, I wasn't following too
closely. He had a wooden pallet with a V8 engine strapped to
the deck. He hit a bump....or something...and that big V8
came bouncing off of the truck and rolling down the road
ahead of me, scattering broken bits and parts everywhere!!
I hit the brakes and stopped maybe 50 feet or so from the
engine. He of course slammed on his brakes and hopped
out of the truck. At this point I slowly went around him
and his now sadly de-parted (pun intended) engine.
Since he was carrying only a complete engine and nothing
else, I'm guessing that engine was intended for some
engineless vehicle somewhere. But I don't think they'd want
it now, after seeing all the bits and pieces of it bouncing
down the road at 40 mph.
And he may not even work there anymore after that fiasco.
I imagine he must have had a heck of a time getting what
was left of his engine back up on the flatbed, considering
that an engine like that can easily weigh around 7 or 8
hundred pounds.
So boys and girls, today's lesson is.....
NEVER follow too closely behind a truck hauling ANYTHING!
I'm just glad that I wasn't on the Wing with all of that
shrapnel flying in the air.

Oh yeah....that stretch is pretty heavily patrolled by the
local police. If they got there before he got
that thing reloaded, I'll bet he got a nice ticket for having
an improperly secured load!!!

(P.S. First time I ever saw a big engine like that go 40 mph
without a car attached! LOL)

[nwkwinger]

Wow. That could have been the live version of Final Destination 3. Glad you didn't get hurt.

[AZgl1800]

Not good, I stay back about 3 vehicle lengths at least, I use the " 1 second for 10 mph " rule.

50 mph, you better be 5 seconds behind the point he just passed over.
IF, your eyes are diverted to the pretty skirt on the sidewalk, that 5 seconds will disappear so fast..........

IF, you happened to see the load leave the truck, it will take the average good driver, about 0.3 seconds to recognize the danger, and about 0.7 seconds to slam on the brakes.
Now you have a new problem, Joe Friday is right on your tail so close you can't see the grill on his car.......... is he awake?

Most of us will try to steer clear, if that is possible.

I had to see a doctor yesterday in the lovely part of downtown Tulsa, OK. I call it Demolition Derby Avenue.

I purposely left a lot of room between me and the cars in front. All the zig zaggers were making life sweaty, was glad to get home as it was 4:30 PM when I left the doc's office with 30 miles of Demolition Derby to go through.

[Andy Cote]

Amen!

I always give extra room to commercial vehicles expecting road gator/blowout.

Also, leave extra room behind:
excavation trucks and trailers,
garbage trucks,
fish delivery trucks (common in my neck of the woods),
livestock trailers,
porta-potty trucks