story.news.yahoo.com/s/latimests … NsbjE2OTM-
be careful here in taiwan too. i don’t remember a time going driving that i haven’t seen something flying off a truck. easy to forget the force that these projectiles can have.
What a sad story, and as they say, it could happen to anyone at anytime.
Just the other day I saw a debris related incident here in Taipei.
I was sitting at an intersection waiting to turn left. There was some debris from broken bricks on the road on the other side of the intersection. There were lots of small pieces that had obviously been crushed by passing traffic, with the biggest piece being about fist sized. I was looking at it thinking that it was dangerous considering the small wheels that scooters have.
Anyway a bus stopped at the opposite side of the intersection, also waiting to turn left, and he had a queue of cars behind him. An impatient car came from behind him and tried to make the left turn on the outside, between the bus and my car. Just as he was going passed the bus, the bus edged forward. It’s tire went over the largest piece of brick, and rather than it being crushed, it shot out from under the bus wheel straight into the side of the car that was trying to pass. No one was hurt, but it did some pretty decent panel damage to that car.
Now, had that car not been there, the brick would easily have shot across the intersection at about head height which would have been extremely dangerous for anyone that happened to be driving, riding, or even walking past.
This made me think about debris a lot more carefully. Previously I only really saw it as an obstacle on the road, but clearly it can become a missile too.
Driving on the freeway up to Taipei I had a full size fridge fall off the back of the truck in front of me. It hit the ground, and exploded like a bomb. Amazingly, all of the shrapnel flew clear over my car, and landed behind me where despite rush hour traffic didn’t strike a single vehicle.
It happened so fast that it didn’t even register until I saw all of the other cars trying to avoid the flying metal in my rearview.
About a month ago I was on my way to the airport, and there was a damn pig running down the fast lane of the freeway!
Driving in Australia I once had to dodge a bunch of brand new Toyotas rolling off of the back of a transport.
I once had to dodge a dodgeball…but I wasn’t in a car. And it wasn’t on a freeway. I was in a playground…and 10 at the time…but it was scary none the less.
On a more serious note, I found a pic of the victim: komotv.com/news/images/maria_federici.jpg
[quote=“Mordeth”]I once had to dodge a dodgeball…but I wasn’t in a car. And it wasn’t on a freeway. I was in a playground…and 10 at the time…but it was scary none the less.[/quote]You were lucky. It was rugby balls I dodged. I never really learned the rules of the game, but I don’t think dodging was one of them. I noticed, however, that I was a lot less likely to get hurt if I avoided the ball altogether than if I tried to do whatever it was I was supposed to do with it.