Cautionary tale about carrying stuff in your car!

[Tripper]

My oldest daughter went to a party on her mother's side of the family over the holidays. The husband wanted the party at his house because he lost his wife last year. The husband and wife went shopping and bought a concrete birdbath. They put it in the back of their car & on the way home they were involved in a wreck & the bowl of the birdbath came flying up from behind & hit both of them in the head, killing the wife & severely injuring the husband who had a 2 month hospital stay as a result... kinda scary!!!

BoB

 

[Snake Farm]

Working in construction and driving a van daily for 30+ years I'm totally aware of that kind of thing and have seen some nasty results from flying objects. My van has a bulkhead but I've seen those ripped loose before. Just this week I had a guy bow up in front of me in town and had six sixty lb. bags of sackrete come from the tail end almost up to the bulkhead! Had I been going 60 instead of 30 it could have interesting.

Every time I have something scoot in the van I'm reminded of the comedian Gallagher's bit about a van being the perfect vehicle, "just throw your $hit in the back and if ya need something just hit the brakes"

 

[billy]

4 wheeling on a scary road with a 3000 foot cliff on my right i had a freakin coffee cup jam under my brake pedal!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Sam_Fear]

That's too bad. Around here, it's common to see pick-up trucks with several concrete blocks in the back for weight. They'll try to go through the back window in a hard hit.

 

[Bamamav]

Didn't happen to me, but a friend that worked for the same company as I did--

We worked for a lumber broker, hauling dressed southern yellow pine pine lumber. If you don't have SYP in your part of the country, it's a softwood used in just about all of the construction here. When dressed, it's got a very smooth, slick surface. Put into bundles, and with a little sawdust on every board, it's extremely slick and sometimes hard to keep the center of the bundle from walking out when hauling it. I have had the entire center of a bundle walk backward and fall onto the trailer, and have had it come forward in a quick stop, also. Now as to what happened to my buddy--

He was going up a two lane road about 2 AM, a dark night, no moon, drizzling rain. A very black cow decided to take a night time stroll out of the fence to get to that grass that is always greener on the other side. You can imagine what happened next, they were both on the same piece of real estate at the same time, he braked hard as soon as he seen her, but it was too late, he couldn't get stopped in time, BOOM he hit the cow. Knocked the cow down the road, she rolled over, ended back up on her feet, and his momentum carried him right into the cow again! BOOM again! I should add, he was moo-ving on when he hit the brakes . Anyway, sometime, either the first hit or the second, he never really knew which, the center of the pack of lumber on the top of the load didn't stop when he hit the cow, it kept on coming. The top layer was above cab level, and most of the lumber went over the top of the cab, over the hood, and onto the ground. We had R model Mack trucks, day cab with the back window, no sleepers, and no headache rack on them, only a headboard on the trailers that only went as as high as the second layer of lumber, the third layer didn't have anything to slow it down. Most went over the cab, but two 2"x10" boards came through the back window, one stopped when it hit the dashboard, the other continued through the passenger side windsheild and knocked off the turn signal on the fender. If it had of come through on his side, he wouldn't be with us today.

The boss didn't get us sleeper cabs until several more years after that. I was always nervous when I had to make a sudden stop after that, waiting on a board to come in with me, but luckily it never did!

 

[kenny c]

Ive heard of dogs flying around inside of vehicles in accidents and suddone stop situations. In some states it's required that they are to be restrained the same as a passenger.

 

[donsrods]

Oh, God, that is hard to read about, Tripper ! How horrible. I also hate to see people or dogs riding in the back of pickup trucks, in a wreck they would have no chance.

Don

 

[Neto]

My family & I spent 18 years in the Amazon as Bible translators, and we travelled back & forth to the Indian village in a small Cessna, a 206 (the pilot plus our family of 5). Everything gets strapped down in there. Every since then it just really bothers me travelling the freeways with a minivan (now a Journey crossover) with a bunch of heavy, hard, suitcases loose in the back. In a serious wreck or quick stop, those would come forward like torpedos. It's crazy that there is no provision for strapping all of that down in the back. (Of course, when we were little kids, we used to ride on the package shelf to get a bit more room to stretch out....)

 

[Got Rust?]

Trip, sorry to hear of the loss, good reminder to all of us.

 

[Willowbilly3]

The owner of a construction company I was working for had a pickup pull out in front of hima nd he T-boned it with his Elcamino. He had the dozer ram from a D8 cat in the back and it came through the cab and crushed his pelvis, took about a year before he could walk again and always needed a cane.
I think of that stuff all the time when I have junk in the van. Another reason I am always preaching situational awareness, you can't trust anyone out there to do what they are supposed to do. Trusting total strangers with my life? don't think so.

 

[gassersgarage]

When I was a Training Officer, rookies would buy the latest and greatest equipment. They'd have an aluminum cite book and an aluminum patrol box. I'd show them my leather bound cite book and asked them if they'd rather get hit by their cite book or mine in the event of a rollover. Then I'd point out the sharp edges of their book vs mine. As for the patrol box, I'd tell them to leave it in the trunk for the same reason. I would use a particle clipboard with rounded edges. That would hold blank reports and CHP-180's.

 

[sgtpontiac]

Been there done that....

When I was a Training Officer, rookies would buy the latest and greatest equipment. They'd have an aluminum cite book and an aluminum patrol box. I'd show them my leather bound cite book and asked them if they'd rather get hit by their cite book or mine in the event of a rollover. Then I'd point out the sharp edges of their book vs mine. As for the patrol box, I'd tell them to leave it in the trunk for the same reason. I would use a particle clipboard with rounded edges. That would hold blank reports and CHP-180's.

Rookies like to have all the newest crap they read about...Like you I go out with my particle clipboard and very few other items other than what is required on my belt....my stinger flashlight is rubber, small and fits nicely into the door pocket....we do Ecitations where we have a printer in the car for citations ...