Just for safety sake, I'd like to know what to do the next time we encounter an experience like this, and let the Driver know what's going on behind him that he can't see it himself.
We were heading to the hospital yesterday morning on I65 and there was an 18 Wheeler a couple of lengths ahead of us in our lane. All of a sudden there was debris flying all over the place, and Bill was having to swerve our car from side to side to avoid us being hit by it. At first I had no clue what was happening, I just thought it was.....I dunno.....raining rubber at us.
What happened was that the trucker ahead of us had just blown one of his rear inner back 2 tires. And there was tire, wheel, all sorts of rubber stuff, and God only knows what else, blowing out from underneath the back end of his truck. We slowed down, but as we watched, the rim began to wobble and Bill decided it would be much wiser on our part to be ahead of the truck, instead of behind it! We pulled over into the fast lane, and he gunned it to get us out of harms way.
On the way past the truck I tried to get it's license plate #, but we were going to fast for me to really get a good enough look at it or write it down, and I couldn't have gotten it before that, because of the debris. We kept pulling up along side of the trucker and I tried waving my arms and him and pointing towards the back end of his truck. He never even glanced in our direction. So to keep and stay safe ourselves, we kept pulling away in front of him. I was going to call it in on 911, but other than "we're on I65, somewhere between Lafayette and Indy (465), and there's a truck that's blown a back tire, the rim is about to lose it also, and the guy is going to dump his load", I had no idea what to say. I had no clue where we were, and Bill was still trying to concentrate on getting us out of harms way, should anything happen.
We passed an LEO who'd pulled over a car (for speeding I would have guessed?) but we were going to fast to change lanes to the shoulder of the road, then back up to the other car and flag down the officer. By that point the rig would have blown past us (and the LEO) so the officer was hopefully going to see it before we could tell him what was happening.
I didn't watch the news last nite, nor have I read any papers (I don't usually read the paper anyway), so I have no clue what finally happened with the truck, and whether someone was able to flag the guy down and get him to realize what was going on. I'm pretty sure the LEO would have seen it, and gone after it far better than we could have. We don't have a radio in the car (CB) and as I said, I'd have called 911 but I only had a vague notion of where we were. I don't drive any longer, so I hadn't been paying that much attention until the rubber started hitting the front of our car. THEN I looked up and saw what was happening.
I had this brief flash on the program that we watch from time to time, "Trauma, Life in the ER" and all the weird things that are rushed in that happen to people in those types of situations, happening to us. I was already scheduled for 1 surgery, I didn't want to have more, and/or see Bill get hurt either. (Or anyone else for that matter.)
So it all boils down to: What do you/we/anyone do, to alert someone that something like that has happened, and that some sort of assistance is going to probably be needed rather quickly. I didn't even have enough time to see a "mile marker" on the side of the road, I was to busy ducking and bobbing, and Bill was busy trying to keep OUR car under control and not get hit with any of the bigger pieces that were flying all over the place.
In any other situation we'd have either stopped to help, or figured out where we were and called in at least some information, but with this happening not 2 car lengths in front of us, going 65 down the interstate, there was only enough time to react, not think as well. Personally, it scared the crap out of me! Bill held it together, because he's got much more experience than I have, especially recently, since I quit driving in 09 due to the fact I can't see in the dark anymore, and it just made more sense not to drive at all. Besides, I HATE driving on highways (or freeways as we used to call them years ago), so I'm frazzled when we're on one in the first place. In this situation, I downright "frizzed" as we call it. I've only been in a situation like that once before, back when I was in my early 20's, and that was a LONG long time ago!
So, does anyone have an help, suggestions, ideas, etc., on what we could have done, or do in the future, to get the drivers attention. Bill did try turning our lights on and off, but to no avail. The driver never even responded to us. And next time, (which hopefully there never will be a next time) if I try to call 911, what specifically should I be looking for to tell them, as it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to notice much of anything, except that I'd started to pray, HARD! And to make matters worse, I have virtually NO sense of direction, so as I usually put it, we were going "up to Indy", when it's actually "down" from us. Forget N S E W, I have no clue what those directions are, unless the sun is either rising or setting, or we have a little gizmo in the rear view mirror that says what direction we're going. I told Bill years ago, and it still holds true, I drive by landmarks, and if I don't have any, it's a good bet that I'm lost.
So, comeon guys, hell? What should we, or anyone in our situation, have done under such or similar circumstances?
7th Stepper
We were heading to the hospital yesterday morning on I65 and there was an 18 Wheeler a couple of lengths ahead of us in our lane. All of a sudden there was debris flying all over the place, and Bill was having to swerve our car from side to side to avoid us being hit by it. At first I had no clue what was happening, I just thought it was.....I dunno.....raining rubber at us.
What happened was that the trucker ahead of us had just blown one of his rear inner back 2 tires. And there was tire, wheel, all sorts of rubber stuff, and God only knows what else, blowing out from underneath the back end of his truck. We slowed down, but as we watched, the rim began to wobble and Bill decided it would be much wiser on our part to be ahead of the truck, instead of behind it! We pulled over into the fast lane, and he gunned it to get us out of harms way.
On the way past the truck I tried to get it's license plate #, but we were going to fast for me to really get a good enough look at it or write it down, and I couldn't have gotten it before that, because of the debris. We kept pulling up along side of the trucker and I tried waving my arms and him and pointing towards the back end of his truck. He never even glanced in our direction. So to keep and stay safe ourselves, we kept pulling away in front of him. I was going to call it in on 911, but other than "we're on I65, somewhere between Lafayette and Indy (465), and there's a truck that's blown a back tire, the rim is about to lose it also, and the guy is going to dump his load", I had no idea what to say. I had no clue where we were, and Bill was still trying to concentrate on getting us out of harms way, should anything happen.
We passed an LEO who'd pulled over a car (for speeding I would have guessed?) but we were going to fast to change lanes to the shoulder of the road, then back up to the other car and flag down the officer. By that point the rig would have blown past us (and the LEO) so the officer was hopefully going to see it before we could tell him what was happening.
I didn't watch the news last nite, nor have I read any papers (I don't usually read the paper anyway), so I have no clue what finally happened with the truck, and whether someone was able to flag the guy down and get him to realize what was going on. I'm pretty sure the LEO would have seen it, and gone after it far better than we could have. We don't have a radio in the car (CB) and as I said, I'd have called 911 but I only had a vague notion of where we were. I don't drive any longer, so I hadn't been paying that much attention until the rubber started hitting the front of our car. THEN I looked up and saw what was happening.
I had this brief flash on the program that we watch from time to time, "Trauma, Life in the ER" and all the weird things that are rushed in that happen to people in those types of situations, happening to us. I was already scheduled for 1 surgery, I didn't want to have more, and/or see Bill get hurt either. (Or anyone else for that matter.)
So it all boils down to: What do you/we/anyone do, to alert someone that something like that has happened, and that some sort of assistance is going to probably be needed rather quickly. I didn't even have enough time to see a "mile marker" on the side of the road, I was to busy ducking and bobbing, and Bill was busy trying to keep OUR car under control and not get hit with any of the bigger pieces that were flying all over the place.
In any other situation we'd have either stopped to help, or figured out where we were and called in at least some information, but with this happening not 2 car lengths in front of us, going 65 down the interstate, there was only enough time to react, not think as well. Personally, it scared the crap out of me! Bill held it together, because he's got much more experience than I have, especially recently, since I quit driving in 09 due to the fact I can't see in the dark anymore, and it just made more sense not to drive at all. Besides, I HATE driving on highways (or freeways as we used to call them years ago), so I'm frazzled when we're on one in the first place. In this situation, I downright "frizzed" as we call it. I've only been in a situation like that once before, back when I was in my early 20's, and that was a LONG long time ago!
So, does anyone have an help, suggestions, ideas, etc., on what we could have done, or do in the future, to get the drivers attention. Bill did try turning our lights on and off, but to no avail. The driver never even responded to us. And next time, (which hopefully there never will be a next time) if I try to call 911, what specifically should I be looking for to tell them, as it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to notice much of anything, except that I'd started to pray, HARD! And to make matters worse, I have virtually NO sense of direction, so as I usually put it, we were going "up to Indy", when it's actually "down" from us. Forget N S E W, I have no clue what those directions are, unless the sun is either rising or setting, or we have a little gizmo in the rear view mirror that says what direction we're going. I told Bill years ago, and it still holds true, I drive by landmarks, and if I don't have any, it's a good bet that I'm lost.
So, comeon guys, hell? What should we, or anyone in our situation, have done under such or similar circumstances?
7th Stepper
