Commuting on I-405 in Bellevue, WA area, I see flying debris every now and then. Usually it's leaves, plastic bags, pebbles, and occasional burning cigarettes flying at me.
This past Friday, I was going home, following a metro bus. The traffic in the HOV lane was moving quite nicely, despite Friday evening traffic. I was following the bus with a 2-second gap, staying slightly toward the right side of the lane. I wanted to be seen by jackasses wanting to cut in.
All of a sudden, the bus ran over a piece of 4' x 8' plywood with it's left rear tires. The tires and turbulence from bus kicked up the plywood right behind it. The wind caught the now vertical plywood and, like a sail, it shifted violently sideways toward the lane of traffic.
With a split second to react, I shifted my weight and counter steered to move the bike to the right. I managed to moved to the most right of the HOV lane. But with the counter steering, I also have my left shoulder sticking out. The flying plywood of death probably missed my left shoulder by about a foot. I got the bike back in line and looked at the rear view mirror to confirm what had just happened wasn't a dream. I then saw the VW Jetta behind me having splinters for dinner.
Geeeeeeeeez Louis....
I hope you checked your pants for any stains after that, jesus!!!
Glad you're okay!
And good on ya for the cat-like speed and reflexes!
Nice save! [thumbsup]
Holy shit! Glad you dodged that one... literally. I've had stuff kicked up in front of me (pieces of blown truck tires, hub caps, general crap...) but never a 4x8 piece of plywood! You are one lucky (and quick reacting!!) dude. [thumbsup] [Dolph] [beer] You could have been sharing those dinner splinters with the V-Dub.
Are we talking about the same 405 in Belleview? It was moving?? on a Friday?! [cheeky]
Glad to hear you got out unscathed. [thumbsup] I got caught a few years ago by the flying cardboard of death. That hurt bad enough. That plywood would've sheered off a limb!
Quote from: IZ on January 30, 2012, 01:32:12 PM
Are we talking about the same 405 in Belleview? It was moving?? on a Friday?! [cheeky]
That section of the 405 was just south of New Castle so it had already cleared the i-90 nighmare. Oh, forgot to mention that I sneaked out early on Friday so it was around 4 - 4:30pm. HOV was moving pretty good.
I didn't react that quickly... I had plenty of room between me and the bus (about 2 sec). It was more like - ummmm.... WTF?.... (plywood caught the wind)... Oh sh*t.... move damnit move.... OMG OMG, I can still feel my left hand...
I tend to have bigger distance behind bigger vihecles so I don't get blocked and disappear from view. Luckily that helped me dodged a bullet this time, too.
I'm from the Bellevue area!! The merge of 405 and 90 is terrible completely agreed!! When I was going to school during the summer at the UW I had to do that merge 5 days a week right during rush our... Worst engineering design ever...
Glad your all good though! [thumbsup]
That wooda hurt! Good job [thumbsup]
Wow.
I thought billowing, long tendrils of shrinkwrap blowing across 70MPH two-lane were bad....
Quote from: Capn Krunch on January 30, 2012, 02:56:33 PM
I'm from the Bellevue area!! The merge of 405 and 90 is terrible completely agreed!! Worst engineering design ever...
Glad your all good though! [thumbsup]
http://g.co/maps/s5ebr (http://g.co/maps/s5ebr)
I like all this stuff around exit 9, 10a & 10b.
I'm glad I'm not doing that stuff anymore.
I used to have to do this one before they fixed it.
http://g.co/maps/tdk57 (http://g.co/maps/tdk57)
The 880 is bad for having mattresses, pieces of Iron and bits of furniture lying in the road.
Kirkland to the Bus stop for the s/o to cross waterbridge and then on to BSD was enough for me. Not too bad but it took forever just to go a few miles. Don't miss the driving there!
that would have split you like a mango
take MSF much?
wheeeeeeeeeeew!
that was a nice save [thumbsup]
i had that happen to me once, but i was doing 85+ in my week old GTI
4x8 flew out of the pickup truck in front of me, and was flipping end to end through the air
i quickly moved into the breakdown lane and avoided it completely...
i never stopped or slowed down
both guys in the car said i was the most awesome driver EVER [bow_down]
i had a heart attack [laugh]
I used to work in Emeryville and drive or rode to East Oakland 5 days a week. Hubcaps hurt!
Quote from: D Paoli on January 30, 2012, 04:13:22 PM
http://g.co/maps/s5ebr (http://g.co/maps/s5ebr)
I like all this stuff around exit 9, 10a & 10b.
I'm glad I'm not doing that stuff anymore.
I used to have to do this one before they fixed it.
http://g.co/maps/tdk57 (http://g.co/maps/tdk57)
The 880 is bad for having mattresses, pieces of Iron and bits of furniture lying in the road.
Quote from: TiNi on January 31, 2012, 02:49:50 AM
i had a heart attack [laugh]
That just about sums it up :)
I was driving my Aunts VW over in the Black Diamond/Enumclaw area years ago and had a sheet flip out of a truck and went right over the car. Not as close call as you goat but scary non-the-less.