Close call . . . with a rock!!

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:40 am

Moved to the outside lane of the M8 just west of Glasgow city centre this afternoon to overtake a car and a lorry. The lorry was towing a skip-type thingy which appeared to be full of muck and rocks. I wasn't too close or anything . . . just doing a standard overtake of them in the outside lane.

Noticed a couple of bits of muck/stones fall from the back of the lorry and bounce along the road and thought . . . let's get past this thing before I get a few new additions to the stone chips on the front of the car, so put the foot down a bit as I passed it . . .

Was a bloody good thing I did!! As I passed, a rock about the size of my fist came out of the back of the lorry and bounced off my soft top!!!

If I hadn't put my foot down when I did or had been a fraction of a second slower, that could have been straight through my windscreen! If it had been dry and I had the roof off, it could have been straight on my head!!

Thankfully no damage to the car, just a few dirty marks on the soft top. Also thankfully nobody behind me to get hit by the rock as it bounced off my roof!

If I hadn't been in so much shock at nearly getting a rock through the windscreen or so worried about getting hit by another one, I'd have slowed down behind him again and taken a note of his registration and reported him! I instead sped off to get out of the way of any other flying projectiles!

Fecking ridiculous . . . why can't the coppers pull him over and fine the fecking company for endangering other road users?!!??

ExigeKen · Post by **ExigeKen** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:54 am

Wow that sounds real dangerous glad you managed to avoid it mate.

robin · Post by **robin** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:05 am

The lorry should have had a tarpaulin over the load I think - if you see rocks coming off a lorry you should take the registration and pass it to the police. A friend had this happen to her with a big chunk missing out of the front clam and although she recognised the lorry's markings (that particular company she sees often) because she didn't have the reggie she couldn't get any compensation and ended up claiming off her insurance - had anyone called in the reggie, time, location, there would be an independent record and that would have sorted it for her.

Cheers,
Robin

dezzy · Post by **dezzy** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:18 am

I really should have Robin, but I was just so worried about another rock hitting the car that I thought it best to speed off into the distance! In hindsight, I wish I'd just pulled over onto hardshoulder and waited til he passed to try and get his reg. No company markings on the truck.

I think a lot of the dirt and stones/rocks were actually come out of the bottom at the back of the trailer, rather than the top, so he might have had a tarpaulin on already and it was the door to the trailer that was loose.

r055 · Post by **r055** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:28 am

close call dezzy...

im always slightly paranoid about things like that happening when i have the roof off...

luckily for you, the tipper didnt fly up and hit the gantry!

Dominic · Post by **Dominic** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:11 am

Sounds like a near miss

This stuff drives me mad. Really slack on the truck driver / operators to allow this to happen. My dad worked for years with a company that had tipper trucks, and they were very strict on securing load, and checking no bricks stuck between double tyres ..etc. Trucks were also jet washed every day.

Glad you survived it. I have to admit, I would get out his way ASAP too, don't want to hang around a potentially dangerous situation any longer that I have to.

mckeann · Post by **mckeann** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:46 pm

i was going round the edinburgh city bypass last week and there was a 1/4 of a brake disc in the outside lane

. i managed to avoid it, but it was too busy to stop. No doubt someone in a 4*4 tank will have come along and moved it.

bertieduff · Post by **bertieduff** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:19 pm

That's maddening...just negligence on the driver's part-any loose load should be covered by law. Lucky, mate.

Last summer, about 5am on an empty stretch of M-way I put the foot down, came over a crest and hit two large planks of wood thoughtfully laid across both carriageways- couldn't avoid them- thought I was a gonner. Buckled both front wheels but kept going straight thankfully...

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 1:38 pm

Had a piece of 2*4 lumber eject out from under a saloon on the M40 that went twisting in the air off my wiper arm then up and again for the poor fecker behind me. Busy inside lane so could not take evasive and natural reactions came in and arm came up to cover my face as brain had interpreted it coming in to my face through the glass.

Probably still airbourne in perpetual motion.

Skyenet · Post by **Skyenet** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 2:38 pm

I was on the A68 and a great big container came flying past me with a Reliant Robin attached to it

robin · Post by **robin** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:53 pm

mckeann wrote:i was going round the edinburgh city bypass last week and there was a 1/4 of a brake disc in the outside lane, so I stopped and collected it as a spare as it was in better nick than mine .

robin · Post by **robin** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 11:02 pm

LOL @ the sh*t that happens on the M-way -

Funniest (after)/scariest (at the time) thing that happened to me was on some trip through holland on the M-way with Kelvin following behind - caught sight of a horse-drawn-trap barreling across a field up ahead - didn't look like it was going to stop, and sure enough the horse must have been spooked, because it dragged the cart onto the M-way darting through the traffic - I guess it figured it could jump the elises because it headed straight for us - we missed it by fractions of a second - it was so close I couldn't see it's head out of the side window - I am not sure how Kelvin missed it, but somehow he did - he had his roof off IIRC and remembers seeing the horse out of the roof!!

Looking in the mirror I saw the horse vault the central reservation and the poor driver got thrown out of the cart - he landed in the grass thankfully and the horse bolted off up the central reservation - Bob said he heard that the horse was shot later

I also remember a story from an ex-colleague of mine - she had a rental car and a cement mixer fell off the back of a truck - it bounced over the car in front and landed on her car - totally destroyed, though she walked away with a few cuts. In those days she was always rushing about manically and she actually forgot to mention the disaster to the rental company - a month later they called her looking for their car

Cheers,
Robin