The other day I was driving home on a three lane expressway. Moderate to heavy traffic at 60-70 mph. As I am in the process of changing to the middle lane, before I know it, there is the biggest piece of retread tire (gator) in the road I have ever seen. Couldn't see it before because of traffic. Only choice is to continue to run over it (avoiding it completely would have meant swerving into someone, not to bright). I hit it with at least the left rear tire and it made a horrible noise. Said some stuff I can't type here and just figured I took out the rear fender (at the least). I then thought I might have thrown it up in the air onto the car behind me. I don't think I did, but IF I had, would I be at fault for throwing up this HUGE piece of rubber that I didn't put there or that I couldn't see until it was too late (no mudflaps were gonna stop this thing)?


~Rob

 

In my opinion no. It's called a road hazzard in my book.

I ran over a 4x4 fence post once that fell off the back of a loaded down truck in front of me. The car directly in front of me yanked it out of the way just in time... here I come with no where to go, traffic on both sides. BAMB I flat run it over with both tires, it kicks up underneath the truck then along comes the rear end. Bingo it's air borne at this point I watched in my side view mirror as it took out the entire front of a small car. We were blarring down the highway at 70+ mph when this happened in bumper to bumper traffic. I never did stop, but neither did the guy behind me, he ended up working his way over to the shoulder (took him a while) and I never heard anything about it.

I felt kinda bad for the poor guy but he was tailgating the holy snickles out of me. Cops never came and drug me away so I guess it was just a road hazzard as I classified it as.

 

No.

 

If it came off your truck you're at fault. Since it was already on the road - not your problem.

 

In the real world No way, If you lived in Calif you probably be screwed.

 

apache

Your probably right, we can't even elect a mayor without going to court.

 

Thanks, ya'll confirmed my suspicions.

~Rob

 

I been wanting to talk to you about the flying rubber.. Sheesh I thought Texans were friendly!.

 

I've seen people swerve to avoid things like that, and cause multi car pileups. Sometimes running something like that over is the best thing you can do, though it takes an experienced hand at the wheel to not over react out of panic.

I agree with the people above, that it wasn't your fault. If you had a jacked up big tire truck that violated your state's mudflap law and it kicked a rock through someone's windshield, or if it were part of your load that wasn't properly secured, that would be different.

 

my old man was pulled over for something similer to this like 8 years ago. he clipped a large truck crimp type exhaust clamp [4" i believe] with his 90 k1500 with the 6.2 diesel that was laying on the road with his drivers side front tire. it shot out and dented up the grand prix [pass fender, and hood scratched] that was in the lane next to him. we didn't know it hit the car next to us, but the GP called the cops and we had an officer show up at our house that evening, with the clamp in hand. he looked over our truck and saw there was no clamps missing [or any that needed that size]... officer said the GP guy was very ******. car was less than a week old...

edit for language happens... i wouldn't worry about it.

 

I'd say you did the right thing and kept a cool head.

Lets say you weren't aware there was a car beside you and swerved to miss the tire. You probably would have caused an accident with that move and people could have got injured or even worse.

You made the best out of a bad situation........ definately not your fault.

Good driving.

 

Would say not your fault. My last accident was the same situation, I was driving down a 4 lane hwy at night when I saw a truck pass me in the other direction. It was dark and I saw at the last instant the entire steel radial tread rolling directly into me, Went under the front and came out under the right door and beat every inch of the truck down the side and shreaded the rear fender. I found out the trick to reporting it, It ran into you... you did not hit it. Makes the diffrence on your record and premiums. It cost $2,500.00 to repair the damage. If it would have hit a small car or a motorcycle it would have hurt. Amazing how much garbage is in the road..

 

My daughter hit a big rig's drive shaft a couple of years ago. Flattened all four tires and broke all four rims. The drive shaft then got air born and went through an SUV's hood & windshield. Before it was all over 13 cars were disabled due to this drive shaft coming off of the semi. IF I remember right the semi company paid all the claims.

I was just glad my daughter was not killed, and no one was even hurt.

BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!

 

No your not at fault I had this happen to me with a rock and a waste of sheetmetal yes a import. The rock flew of my boggers I had mudflaps and flares and my insurance company said it was a road hazard although they said If I would have been mad at that guy and spun my tires and flung a rock on his car then yes I would have been at fault and my insurance would have to pay the damage.

 

On Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary one night, heavy traffic, just motoring along, all of a sudden there's this dead deer on the road. I had nowhere to go, traffic beside me, the guy that hit it parked beside it on the shoulder... It was dark so I didn't see where it went when I hit it but it was a hard jolt, hit it with the truck and the trailer... Sure woke me up, not sure if it hit the guy behind me... I never heard anything about it again.