Obstacle Course on the 101

Vaughn McMillan

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Today was mirror day at work. We installed a couple of mirrors inside a closet in Brentwood (big closet, about as many square feet as my master bedroom), then went to Agoura Hills to pick up and deliver a couple more to install in a house in Calabasas.

I was driving our big Toyota Tundra (with two expensive mirrors in the back) at about 70 mph on the 101 freeway between Agoura Hills and Calabasas, following a little pickup loaded to the gills with metal office cabinets. All of a sudden, three of the cabinets blew over and fell out of the back, right in front of me. I was following at a reasonable distance, so I managed to slalom my way through the cabinets as the slid past me, missing on both sides of the truck by inches. I don't know if the little Nissan sedan that had been following me too close hit any of the cabinets, but immediately after I passed the cabinets, I looked in my rear view mirror to see the Nissan skidding to a smoky stop after doing a 180º spin, facing the oncoming traffic with cars on both sides weaving to avoid it. I've gotta hand it to the Tundra...it handled the real-world emergency avoidance maneuver with grace, and although the mirrors in the back moved a bit, they were unharmed. The more I drive that pickup, the more impressed I am with it. :thumb:

Perry, my boss, was on the phone and looking at his laptop computer, so he didn't see the events unfold until I started weaving. He was talking in a normal tone of voice, then looked up and exclaimed [insert the profanity of your choice]!!! into the phone. Seconds later, he was apologizing to the client he was talking to, explaining that we'd just missed by inches having the front of the truck wiped out because some nimrod had failed to tie down his load. :p

Why is it that Fridays seem to be our "automotive adventure" days? It was a few Fridays ago when we saw the Mercedes do the airborne 270º corkscrew and land on the driver's door between two parked cars. :rolleyes:
 
Glad you all are OK.

Reminds me of the day when a semi's tire fell off and headed straight for me on the 91 freeway in LA. Fortunately the other three folks in the vehicle never noticed it as I quickly changed lanes to not have it come through the windshield.

Truly scary stuff when you can imagine what could have happened.
 
Glad you all are OK.

Reminds me of the day when a semi's tire fell off and headed straight for me on the 91 freeway in LA. Fortunately the other three folks in the vehicle never noticed it as I quickly changed lanes to not have it come through the windshield.

Truly scary stuff when you can imagine what could have happened.

I had a similar incident on I-40 between Albuquerque and Tucumcari, NM. The truck was headed eastbound and I was going west. I saw the tire from about a quarter of a mile away as it crossed the median and headed straight for me. Like you, I changed lanes to avoid hitting it, but I had all sorts of time to do it.
 
That kind of stuff is scary, and people who don't tie stuff down like that should no longer have the privilege to drive! :mad:

I've heard good things about that truck too!:thumb:
 
I was driving up the 5 (near Fresno) and a semi that seemed to be built out of sticks was too tall for the underpass. We were all swerving to avoid the flying pieces of wood.

Brent and I were coming home from camping and it was so windy, I was fearing for our own lives of the camper flipping us over. On the other direction, we saw a huge semi flipping in mid air. I kissed the ground when we got home.
 
My wife won't drive with me anymore:(...I have a 20mm canon mounted in my grille to remove slow/doppy people me keeping me from my appointed rounds:D:rolleyes::rofl:. I spent to much time in Yuma driving behind Snowbirds who have no where to go except slow and saying "look Ethel...that's the 14th 7-11 in the last 200ft...amazing what you can see in 30 minutes here":eek::p:eek:
 
Seems you becoming a victim to statistics in that new job Vaughn. The more you drive the more you exposed.:D

John brings up a good point, that is about having pictures, and i dont mean relating it to the forum. I notice there are now very convenient video cameras available to mount on the front windshield for the purpose of capturing the goings on in front of you. May end up some day being worthwhile having something like that as a reference of actual events.
 
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