I've been a truck driver for 27 yrs. and I could not begin to count how much crap I've seen fall off of trucks because it was'nt secured properly.

Their are alot more trucks on the road than their are truck drivers!

 

do you think St Peter believed him when he got to the pearly gates ?

 

That's a terrible way to go out. I make it a habit not to follow more then 5 bike lengths behind any truck that hauling any thing.

 

damn..........I can't even imagine that scenario.

Many years ago, I was following a dump truck pulling a backhoe on a trailer on I-4 in Fla.
While waiting for a break in traffic, to go around him, the truck hit a bump in the road.
All the crap on the trailer jumped into the air....sand, wood and rocks!
You know what happened next!

I went into the emergency lane to try to miss the projectiles. Missed most, but at the last sec, I see a baseball size rock 3 feet from my head. All I had time to do was look down. The rock hit me on top of the head with the loudest crack I've ever heard.

Two things that still stay with me 30 years later.............

NEVER get behind any vehicle carrying cargo
and
always wear my helmet

 

Once saw a car that looked like it was going down road with hood popped up...you know how you release your hood and it pops up like 1 1/2 inches and catches safety latch?

I immediately backed off as much as I could. A few minutes laterI guess safety latch gave up and hood flew right off...even at 55mph the wind force was enough to rip hood off mounts like it was nothing. It went sailing through the air and fortunately hit no one, but cars followingcouldn't stop and about five of them just ran right over his hood.

Make me wonder about them new "detachable" Harley windshields...

 

If you can imagine it has already happened.....

 

I know of a rider who was killer by a suitcase that flew out of the back of a pick-up truck. He never saw it coming.

Just as you need to read the road you need to read the vehicles in front of you. Gotta try to be aware of everything possible.

 

Not that it couldn't happen to me but that is one of the many no-nos I practice. I don't stay close enough behind any type of a rig that is carrying something that could even possibly fall off. The most common one is motorhomes. You'll see ladders, chairs, bicycles, all kinds of stuff. It's not that you're not going to find yourself behind them at sometime or another but I make it a point to get "un-behind" them as soon as I can.

 

I like following behind a long line of harleys on a run....
free do rags, gloves,parts,heat sheilds,glasses, ,, you name it!

 

Oh so true.....last year I and a buddy are on a local run with about 50 bikes. Rideing along and all of a sudden bikes are dodgeing somethin ahead...then I see a good size piece of shiny metal bouneing down the road...I'm thinking "which bike did that come from?" At the next stop, I find out it was my buddy's new road glide that lost a little chrome doo dad from his bike. You never know, so stay alert and out of the way!