Almost lost it on the highway tonight.

[acarmody]

So driving home from work tonight, all going well, when BAM!! extremely loud noise from under car, I see sparks and some debris coming from under my car in my side mirror, car jerks pretty hard. I quickly got over to the side of the road to see if my car just exploded. I have a split rubber coupling and am somehow missing a tailshaft bolt so my first thought was my coupling had just let go with a massive goodbye (booked in to get fixed on Thursday).

Anyway look under my car , small power steering leak (can't guarantee that wasn't there before), damage to left side skirt, that would be the debris, couldn't see any buckled wheel or popped tyres, so good effort for a 100km/h bang.

Decided to go for a walk down the side of the highway to see what the #### I hit. Came back with this: (sorry for bad photo. The handle on this thing is all angled, there is no way this thing can lay flat from any angle)

Apart from the body kit, I can't see any other damage. I will get the mechanic to check the undercarriage out on Thursday when he is replacing the rubber coupling. Also get Bob Jane to check out the wheels.

Special thanks to the car on my left and behind me, for slowing right down to about 30km/h to allow me to get to the side of the road quickly, thanks mate.

Also special thanks to the asshole missing this....whatever the #### it is. At the very least you owe me a new side bar and a new set of ####ing underwear.

Anyone else got any similar stories?

 

[ADR 40]

That came off a truck and is called a 'dog', it's used for securing & tightening chains on a load.... obviously not in this case.

Around this way there's a fair amount of people towing boats and tourists towing caravans up and down the highway, and just a few don't service their wheel bearings on the trailers.... which eventually fail.... and the wheel shears off!
Had one wheel come flying down the highway towards me years ago, and know someone who hit a spare lying in the middle of the road at night.
There's a ton of other stuff I've seen coming off trailers as well.

 

[acarmody]

That came off a truck and is called a 'dog', it's used for securing & tightening chains on a load.... obviously not in this case.

Around this way there's a fair amount of people towing boats and tourists towing caravans up and down the highway, and just a few don't service their wheel bearings on the trailers.... which eventually fail.... and the wheel shears off!
Had one wheel come flying down the highway towards me years ago, and know someone who hit a spare lying in the middle of the road at night.
There's a ton of other stuff I've seen coming off trailers as well.

I've had a metal rod that was flung in the air by a vehicle came down at my car once, same highway in fact (hmmm). I couldn't move anywhere, heavy traffic all around, I saw it get closer and closer, and when it hit my car it hit the aerial mast and bounce off behind me. The aerial was ####ed but it could of been so much worse, bit of paint and panel damage where the aerial tip was now touching the bonnet. I was so lucky it didn't come through the windscreen.

 

[Troy711]

Anyone else got any similar stories?

Yea... You could say I have...

pictures of the damage... details of the accident can be found in the thread in the pub.

basiclly... a truck lost some steel bar off the back and this is what happens when you hit it.

Total damage bill was around $15,000

 

[Dirbatua]

yea coming down the highway, 2x4 piece of steel slid off the back of a flatbed truck at 100kph, bounced at windshield height, hit the road, came up again then as it went down and straight under the car, compeltly ####ed 2 rims, blew out 1 tyre and damaged a tierod end,

i was in the Right hand lane, no where to go and couldn't tell wtf is was till i went for a walk and found the chunk of **** off cut steel.

Changed the ####ed tyre, straighten 2 of the rims with a mallet and drove 3 blocks to Holden and told em to put new rims and tyres on and check the suspension and **** for damage.

Was lucky it didn't end up going through the windshield.

(another story after the above was repaired, ####ing Holden didn't notice the big chunk missing out of the tie rod end despite me asking them to check the control arms and **** for damage and the ####er snapped on me less then a month later not long after i got off the highway, luckily i was going slow at the time or could of been worse when the force pulled the axle out of the diff (front wheel drive work car) and the only thing holding the wheel to the car was the brake line and strut top and only just, wheel came so far out it bent the guard etc)

 

[Dirbatua]

#### troy, i thought mine was bad, thats ####loads worse.

 

[Darren_L]

several years ago I barely managed to miss a loading ramp that fell out of the back of a car transporter trailer on the highway. The ramps slide under the tray and are supposed to be locked in with a pin. Obviously the driver forgot to lock them in. Once ramp fell out on the highway right in front of myself and several other motorists and the other side was on it's way out as well. Somehow we all managed to miss the ramps and the driver pulled up as soon as he spotted the chaos.

 

[SV6 Matt]

ouch that would be a kick in the teeth, in my old commodore going up a dirt road i went around a bend and there was a rather large rock in the dead middle of the road, slammed the brakes but yea ran over it n it bashed itself along the bottom of my car and nearly ripped my exhaust off.. some idiot put it there beacause you could see where they had removed it from the bank and placed it in the way -.o

 

[Beav]

#### that's bad man. 1st post is right they use them to tighten chains on truck when hauling heavy loads, that would do some damage.

 

[Fekason]

Many years ago, I was heading north on the F3 just before the Brooklyn Bridge. It was heavy holiday traffic, but moving comfortably about 100 KPH. I was in the right hand lane, with a rock wall right beside the lane.

Suddenly, I noticed the car two in front rapidly change into the next lane, causing all sorts of reactions from the cars in that lane. By the time my mind took in what was happening, I started to brake. Then the car in front did the same thing. I was then confronted with a lecturn lying on the road. With a truck on my left, I had no option but to keep braking so that impact was as slow as possible. The lecturn smashed into lots of little pieces, and my front bumper did likewise. You could imagine the chaos developing. I gingerly drove on a few hundred metres until there was room to move off the road to the right, no chance to the left with the heavy traffic.

A quick inspection showed that there was absolutely nothing of the bumper bar remaining, but no damage to the radiator or other components. While wondering what to do, I heard multiple beeping of horns up ahead. The cause soon became evident. A flat bed truck full of school furniture was backing up the busy highway in the right lane. I stopped the truck, and asked the driver what he was doing, and he replied that a lecturn had fallen off his truck, and he was going back to get it. I informed him that it was "written off"and only good for firewood, and asked for his details.

Luckily, his insurance paid for my repairs. Also luckily, the car was drivable so we continued on holidays.