I had an interesting experience a few weeks ago, I was on the highway near New Glasgow, NS, driving in the left lane, approaching two trucks in the right lane. The rear truck was clearly less heavily loaded than the other and decided to pull out and pass. This was a level stretch of highway, so no problem, he was doing about 115Km/h and I just followed behind him. We approached an overpass, and by the left side of the road there were some birds, mostly pigeons, milling around. They were not disturbed by cars going by them at 120, but when the truck bore down on them they flushed, which would have been fine were it not for the overpass. They were unable to go up and left, and had to veer back toward the highway. I saw one clear the top of the truck by inches, but the other pigeon was lost to my view until it exploded on contact with the grille of the truck. A truly impressive cloud of feathers accompanied us down the road for about 100 meters. There are still a couple stuck to the front of my car.
I'll see your Pigeon and raise you a Canada Goose.
I'm thinking his angle of descent would have landed him nicely on the street median were it not for him being perpendicular to the road. Hard to call it a good thing but when he and the van made contact, it was between the grille and the windshield thank goodness. The resulting de-feathering and tenderizing was something I'm sure neither of us had anticipated. The damage to the vehicle was mostly cosmetic but the same could not be said for the unfortunate winged one. Due to his flight path and subsequent 'nudge' from the van, he made it, or what was left of him, to the median in what could only be described as some form of rolling, tumbling, eviscerated goose roast. It's the only time I can remember stopping on a busy four lane road where no one honked or gave me the finger.
It was a life changing experience. From that point on I learned to carry an extra pair of underwear in my travels.
folks who make unsignaled lane changes racing through a yellow in an intersection while you're attempting a legal and signaled right hand turn into the inside lane
then they chase you a few blocks over and pull you over to ream you out for not seeing them - of course it often takes two idiots to cause a collision, but the culpability needn't be shared equally
then they chase you a few blocks over and pull you over to ream you out for not seeing them - of course it often takes two idiots to cause a collision, but the culpability needn't be shared equally
oh, and women of a certain BMI wearing skin tight leggings and crop tops- some things just can't be unseen, and locally, Costco is the mecca for such wardrobe miscalculations
When my wife and I were driving in Greece and Italy for a month and had no problems. Everyone there drove aggressively, they know how to drive very well and know the rules of the road. In Toronto it's just bad drives who don't know what they are doing.
PeterC.
PeterC.
I learned the hard way almost exactly a year ago to look both ways before proceeding through an intersection after the light turns green. I was sitting at a red light at an intersection of a State highway and a city street that had left turn arrows. My light turned green, but before I could go, a car coming from the opposite direction was blowing through their RED left turn signal, and right behind that car was another doing the same. As the second red light runner went by in front of me my attention was drawn that direction as I started to go. Unbeknownst to me, a third vehicle, a Ram 2500, was also blowing through that same Red arrow at a rather high speed, and in spite of the fact that I wasn't even going 10 MPH when my Ford Ranger hit the side of his truck, my Ranger was totaled (see my avatar). Thankfully I wasn't physically injured, but it shook me up mentally to the point that it was probably a couple of months before I could drive without feeling insecure, and I now look both ways before proceeding even when I have the right of way. The "excuse" the Ram driver gave was that he was "just following the other cars", like that somehow exonerated his actions. He was awarded a ticket by the Minnesota Highway Patrol for his endeavor. But to add insult to injury, somehow I was assessed 30% of the blame for the sordid affair, but at least my insurance provider didn't raise my rates. All in all, it was a bad day to say the least. That Ranger was a nice little truck, an '07 4X4 with all the good stuff, and only 28000 miles on it. 🙁
Mike
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any crash from which you can walk away with no bone or major soft tissue damage is a godsend
an '07 with only 28 thou? My bare bones (oops, "Sport") 2010 has 83K km - still runs great and haven't even gone through a set of tires yet. (front brakes, yes)
an '07 with only 28 thou? My bare bones (oops, "Sport") 2010 has 83K km - still runs great and haven't even gone through a set of tires yet. (front brakes, yes)
I got a good deal on an '03 Ranger 4X4 that has a completely documented service history. It's not as nicely equipped as the '07, but it's in great shape with only 75000 miles on it. It does have the optional tow package which makes it ride like an empty dump truck, but tossing 300 lbs. of sand bags in the back smooth's it out some.
Oh, and here's what Mr. Ram-bunctious turned my '07 into:
Mike
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Ouch - it's interesting that with all the front end damage, the windshield appears to have survived intact
The parking lot at work is well populated with 5 major flavors of full-sized P-ups - my Ranger is considered a toy , and over half of them have had windshields cracked - and not all from "flying objects" (of course the ICBC insurance claim said otherwise)
The parking lot at work is well populated with 5 major flavors of full-sized P-ups - my Ranger is considered a toy , and over half of them have had windshields cracked - and not all from "flying objects" (of course the ICBC insurance claim said otherwise)
Twice I bid and won items on Ebay that didn't have a minimum bid. Well the sellers
decided they wouldn't let me have the items after all.
decided they wouldn't let me have the items after all.
Yeah, the only glass breakage was the headlights, the rest of the truck was not so lucky. The passenger side of the cab was pushed back into the bed, passenger door wouldn't close, the chassis was bent, the front wheel was cracked but still held air, the battery exploded right after the wreck from a direct short from positive to ground, air bags deployed...like I said, all in all a really bad day. 🙁
Mike
Most all posted happens to me but if any slow drivers blocks the road driving parallel, their ears will be gone by my continuous horn. No restrictions here on horn.
Gajanan Phadte
Gajanan Phadte
with all due respect to responsible cyclists that may reside in our cohort - cycling clubs "in training" on Sunday mornings - I've seen groups of at least 30, riding 2 or 3 abreast, and blasting through stale green / amber lights, wide left turns en masse -
their ability to generally avoid collisions within their swarm is one thing, but .........
their ability to generally avoid collisions within their swarm is one thing, but .........
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