Lost my ladders on the motorway

[Bill Wright]

Driver's responsibility to check.

Bill

[Brian Gaff]

Back when I was young and could see our family used to go all over the place and I've seen all sorts of potential accidents with stuff attached to cars and trucks. I think one of the most impressive on a family car was a roof box that seemed to just explode at speed and all the contents flew up in the air and went all over the M1 near Watford I think it was. Luckily most people managed to avoided the tent and assorted bits of debris. I can only assume it was not made very well and air got inside and blew it to bits from within. The really scary ones are big trucks with loads tat are obviously shifting due to poor securing. Whole palette loads of cardboard boxes for example just ending up on the road. Luckily for us on the opposite side of the road.

Oh and please do not mention caravans. Brian

[Fredxx]

You must be wise enough not to rely on an apprentice doing a job properly?

[newshound]

My (very sensible) BIL gave up motorcycling after hitting a suitcase that came off a roor rack while riding his Triton in the outside lane of the M1.

[Cursitor Doom]

Coppers wouldn't have turned up anyway. That's what I thought was meant by "DNA" (did not arrive).

[Andy Burns]

highways agency traffic wombles probably would, given time ...

[tim...]

last week, on holiday, our coach passed by a truck which had lost a shed load of loose planks from his load. Fortunately they had all fallen onto the shoulder and not the carriageway.

didn't stop to see how he got his load sorted.

tim

[Andrew]

And reversing on a motorway :-)

How many people drove over the ladders ?.

You could be on the hook for a few tyre replacements if anyone had a dashcam.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Worse one I saw was on M25 near Watford, probably ~16 years ago. A brewer's truck on opposite carriageway had hit the central barrier and loads of beer kegs came out through the side and had head-on collisions with vehicles on my side. Several had gone through car windscreens, and many smashed in collisions so there was beer all over the road. As far as I could see, no one was injured which was truely amazing given the mess. I was 4-5 cars back from the cars that took the full force of the kegs.

[Graeme]

In message , Andrew Gabriel writes

Moral of the story - never drink keg beer :-)

[ARW]

You would have to ask why they did not stop then.

[Fredxx]

Given they would slide for quite a way and stop slower than a car, I doubt a driver in any following car could realistically make a claim.

[whisky-dave]

Unless they were in a driverless car perhaps, I wonder if a driverless car woulkd aviod such a thing. ?

[GB]

They would have a problem if it can't do something as simple as that.

[Terry Casey]

The strangest one I ever saw was in the same area about 10 years before your's.

It was about 10pm and I was on my way to do some nightwork somewhere up the M1.

As I came round a curve, I was aware of a few slow moving cars ahead of me in Lane 3.

Lanes 1 & 2 and the hard shoulder were occupied by an artic which had its cab buried in the embankment alongside the motorway at that point.

Some cars had already stopped to help so I carried on and oozed past the back of the trailer. At this point I was surprised to see three lanes of stationary traffic in the opposite direction!

The HGV had obviously broken through the central barrier so, at first sight, there was no longer any obstruction.

I then became aware of loads of cabbages or something of similar size in the headlights that were scattered all over the other carriageway, obviously the load that the HGV was carrying when the problem started.

When I came back about 6am, the M25 was still closed and I went down the M10 (now the A414) as usual except that instead of being virtually deserted, as usual, it was full of HGVs and artics nose to tail!

[Steve Walker]

The best one I have seen was a 4x4 stopped on the hard-shoulder of the M62. Up the embankment was an Escort, virtually intact and sat on its wheels. On top of the escort, sat perfectly aligned with it, sat the twin-axled trailer that had been transporting it ... also the right way up! How the hell he managed that I don't know.

SteveW