For the second time in my 18 1/2 year stay in Taiwan, I’ve almost been taken out by appliances falling off the back of trucks…The first time was almost ten years ago, when a full size fridge fell off the back of a truck just after the Taishan toll station…
Jump forward to this morning…I’m on my way to work, two wheels this time, and sidle up behind a truck loaded with junked washing machines, refridgerators and the like…Deja vu I think, and within a millisecond of the thought a washing machine falls off the truck! Due to the slower speed this time I was dodging shrapnel and what appeared to be a motor went whizzing by my head…
One other thing…It happened both times on a Monday. Am I marked?
I think you’re more likely to hear a deep bassline on these occasions. Frankly speaking, that’s what’s always saved me in the past. I hear that bassline and I’m outta the water, outta that room, backing away from the door I was about to open, or walking away from the house I was about to knock on the door and ask directions at.
Life presents many clues; you just have to know what to listen for.
That’s weird, man. When I get my little warning, I hear that weird sound when you pluck the guitar strings above the nut, or the higher register piano strings with a key or something like that.
I swear some of us get a little warning before certain danger. Its happened to me so many times before, in so many instances. Industrial accidents, vehicular accidents, etc, Where I narrowly miss certain pain or death, just because I got a feeling, and that sound in my head. And I got out as fast as i could.
I’m glad you got out of it OK. The way they load trucks here is shameful. You could lose your liscence for loading a truck like that in Canuckland. And the states, I guess. So dangerous, and so many people on the road, 4 people on 50 cc scooters, people buzzed on binglang and whizbee.
A couple of years ago I had to dodge a rolling gas tank (a la Donkey Kong) that fell off the back of a motorbike.
I once got hit on the helmet by a falling plastic bucket in the aftermath of a typhoon.
The on that came closest to taking me out was a huge thing of plastic - like a really really big plastic bag - that landed on my face as I was going pretty fast over the Zhong Zheng Bridge. Luckily my passnger pulled it off me.
OK, wasn’t in Taiwan, but once as I was driving I-74 in the US, an oncoming car pulling a trailer had an accident and the trailer came unhitched, careened across the wide divide, then shot up the enbankment into my fast lane. I saw it all coming, being an observant driver, but the lady in the car in front of me didn’t. She failed the Donkey Kong test…
Wow, I had never seen a trailer explode on impact before, but it did. Yikes. Gives new meaning to the term “trailer trash” WOw, household possessions flying through the air at a relative 100 mph… clothing, cabinets, small appliances…
Of course, doing 55 and having a car in front of you hit an exploding trailer creates its own challenges
It took him a full kilometer and several honking trucks for him to stop… :loco:
I think one point of this thread I should have made more clear is how little this bothered me…I don’t know about pulling this thread in another direction but has Taiwan dulled us to traumatic experiences? And are we better/tougher for it?
I’m pretty sure my butt-pucker factor would have been much higher and longer had this happened back home.
[quote=“MJB”]It took him a full kilometer and several honking trucks for him to stop… :loco:
I think one point of this thread I should have made more clear is how little this bothered me…I don’t know about pulling this thread in another direction but has Taiwan dulled us to traumatic experiences? And are we better/tougher for it?
I’m pretty sure my butt-pucker factor would have been much higher and longer had this happened back home.[/quote]
yeah I often think that. Some of the stuff I see here as a part of everyday life would make the newspapers and TV back home. Like the other day I was turning into our building carpark when I noticed a gathering of people out the front, cops there. Turns out a Blue Truck tosser was drunk or something, and managed to career on the other side of the road and sideswipe 3 parked cars before coming to rest head on into another :loco:
I just said “WTF”, shrugged and swiped my card to get in.
Once when I was in Paris very near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees when I heard a “WHOMPFH” the almost sounded like a bomb. So, naturally I headed in that direction to see whats up and found an underground bypass tunnel entrance (aka Princess Diana style) with a truck that was about a foot too tall for it. The truck was a wreck, with trailer part ripped about 2-3 meters right off the chassis, and the windscreen was smashed where the driver hit his head from the inside. He was ok tho. I thought this was one of the funniest things I’d seen and even took photos, especially considering the tunnel had these special cushion things on them to soften the blow (and they had been used many many times I might add) The French just looked at me like I was mad for finding it amusing.
Hmm, I see a dissertation topic here. We’ll throw some appliances off trucks here and back home, and run a butt-pucker factor analysis. [/quote]
I wonder what the butt-pucker sensing equipment would looked like? I mean, you’d need the wires coming out of your pants to some kind of digital read out and all, right?
Yes, the things you can do and only get a shoulder shrug in reaction are amazing.
As a teenager I was riding on the freeway and came up behind a huge dump truck carrying masonry away from some demolition site. Thing was, he had two flat tires in back so the bed was bouncing up and down throwing chunks of concrete wall onto the road behind. I guess the chunks were all in the 50~100kg range, so you can imagine the mess. I managed to squirt past him (dodging bouncing bricks) and then tried to get the attention of the driver, but when I did he only took my gesticulation for abuse (from a biker, ohnoes!!1!) and then started chasing me.
So, it’s not just a Taiwan thing. Truckers are dumb. Period.
But, the sheer number of times I’ve seen local truck drivers scrabbling over the freeway to retrieve a lost load is just amazing. They never seem to learn that if you don’t tie shit down, it will fly away.
I guess the chunks were all in the 50~100kg range, so you can imagine the mess. I managed to squirt past him (dodging bouncing bricks) and then tried to get the attention of the driver, but when I did he only took my gesticulation for abuse (from a biker, ohnoes!!1!) and then started chasing me. 
