Fifty Plus (50+) - Unforeseeable road hazards

Apologies if this is a bit off topic, as it refers to an incident on a motorbike group ride last Friday.

I was hanging back a bit from the front runners on a brisk but safe ride with some very attentive riders. A very windy morning. Passing some roadworks, with a part of the road under construction cordoned off by a connected set of red and white lane markers, plastic blocks about 4 foot long by 3 foot high by 2 foot thick, connected to each other by jig-saw cross sections on the vertical join from one to another.

They are supposed to be filled with water to weigh them down and stick them to the road. These weren't. As the front bikes approached them (high wind, remember), the last one (secured only on one side) caught the wind - and the whole 200 yard snake of road barriers was up in the air, whipping around and dividing into random barriers across the road.

The leading bike riders had a little skill test. Credit to them, they passed. I believe their heart rates were rather elevated and their brake pads and tyres were a little warm.

Goodness. Thank goodness these fellows were 'full-on' with attention, brakes covered and peripheral vision. A lesson to me.

On motorcycles, I've been close to 2 other 'unpredictables'. One was on a frosty motorway - a big semi truck in front - and a sheet of ice on top of the container, an inch thick by 20 feet long by 8 feet wide lifted off the front edge. I saw it detaching, and braked and dived to the shoulder. A number of cars didn't. Much crashing and bumping - luckily with noone hurt.

The other was a kayak still attached to its roofrack in the fast lane of the M4. Kayaks bounce like rugby balls, intriguing to avoid.

And on a bike here a couple of months ago, a container gently slid off its trainer on a roundabout, just into the spot where S and I on the tandem, the last vehicle in front of it, had been a couple of seconds before

Take there out there. Some you can't reasonably expect

Logged in, wrote, submitted, got a 'log in again' message, did so, submitted - and blimey, there I was already :o

One of the unforeseeable hazards of riding the forum..........:)

I agree fully with you that attention to driving or riding is job one for the driver or rider. Life is always full of little and not so little surprises. The other part is that you get to spend your entire life practicing for those few instances and seconds of time that define how well you practiced.

There is the concept of fate...........that all is preordered, and it will happen no matter what. I prefer to think that there will be a couple of instances in life where what you do will matter to the exclusion of all else.........that your actions will be the dividing line between success and failure or life and death.

Logged in, wrote, submitted, got a 'log in again' message, did so, submitted - and blimey, there I was already :o

Yeah, I always select all "Ctrl A" and save it "Ctrl C" before hitting submit if I have been writing for any length of time. The BF seems to kick you out pretty fast if you have not done anything recently. Then if I've been kicked out and the post didn't take, I just paste in the text.

I take it the sheet of ice incident didn't happen in Bahrain! Actually, that same thing happened to a friend of mine..took the communications antenna right off the top of his pickup truck when it flew back from the vehicle ahead, and then while he was exchanging information with the semi-truck driver another one came by, shed another sheet of ice which hit Tom a glancing blow and knocked him down. Some days you're just better off staying home in bed!

Riding while leading a group on a path next to an elevated roadway a few feet away.

A wheel (the entire wheel, rim and all) came off of a car going 40 mph and went zooming close by my head, bouncing just off of the trail and then into the river.

No way to even see it (it came from a bit behind me), therefore no way to avoid it. A second earlier and I would have been toast.

BTW, the driver stopped (well, he had to, with no wheel) and I asked him about the wheel. He claimed he had a new tire put on recently. Guess they didn't tighten the lugs!

The most impressive 'road hazard' incident I ever saw happened a few years back on a trip down to the city. I was driving, and we had all of our (then young) kids in the car when a surfboard worked its way free from a vehicle ahead of us.

We all screamed as the thing dipped and then came straight at out vehicle, only to skate up and over with the airflow, missing the windscreen by inches. What happened then was a phenomenal sight.

Behind us was a car with four young fellas in it. The sufboard dipped again and went straight at THEIR vehicle. All four of them moved their heads sideways so fast that I'm sure they all ended up with headaches from hitting the side windows, as that surfboard went through their windscreen and ended up lodged between them. True story, and a VERY impressive (albeit scary) sight.


One I never got to see myself happened to my son just last year. He'd been visiting us and had only left a few minutes previously when we experienced a power blackout. Next thing I knew we had a phone call.

It was our son, ringing to tell us he was on his way back to our house. He'd only travelled a few kilometres down the road when lightning had struck a power pole ahead of him. The pole was downed, the power line snapped and he'd had the impressive night time experience of seeing the severed power line skipping and snaking its way up the road towards him, creating massive showers of sparks as it came. He'd run off the road and into a ditch trying to get out of the way!

He sounded pretty shaken up, and hearing the story related didn't do much for my composure either. I put the kettle on and went to wake Mrs. Catweazle, only to find myself dealing with a kitchen fore a few moments later. With no elctricity to use I'd put the kettle on the gas stove, and not noticed that it was the electric kettle I was putting there, and I'd set its plastic undersides alight!





The BF seems to kick you out pretty fast if you have not done anything recently. Then if I've been kicked out and the post didn't take, I just paste in the text.

Saving your password should stop that from happening. Try using the 'Remember me' feature when you log in.

Riding while leading a group on a path next to an elevated roadway a few feet away.

A wheel (the entire wheel, rim and all) came off of a car going 40 mph and went zooming close by my head, bouncing just off of the trail and then into the river.

No way to even see it (it came from a bit behind me), therefore no way to avoid it. A second earlier and I would have been toast.

BTW, the driver stopped (well, he had to, with no wheel) and I asked him about the wheel. He claimed he had a new tire put on recently. Guess they didn't tighten the lugs!

Scary stuff! In a similar incident, a former coworker suffered a nasty leg fracture when an errant wheel struck him while he was changing a flat tire on the road shoulder.

Straying a little farther off topic.... Many of the guys I ride with currently ride or have ridden motorcycles. On numerous occasions, I'll see one of our guys chatting up some "biker" looking motorcyclist at a coffee stop. It's all good. Much of the experience, including road hazards, is the same.

As they are gaining altitude off a pond, ducks can be a hazard. Helmets are useful, especially those which can readily be cleaned of the consequences of a frightened waterfowl.