Things fly out of pickup trucks, watch out!

[burkbuilds]

I've always heard and read that you shouldn't follow pick up trucks because stuff often comes out of the bed and can hit you, your bike, or cause a road hazard that is hard to avoid. Last Fall I was heading North on I-75 about half way between Atlanta and Chattanooga when I had the point driven home in a way I am not likely to forget. I was traveling about 75 mph going up a slight grade and following a full size pick up truck in the center lane of three lanes of traffic. Fortunately for me I was way back from him at the time. This driver had two really nice looking bar-b-que grills in the back of his truck, the nice ones like you see out front at Lowe's and Home Depot. The grill at the back of the bed was parallel to the tailgate, the other one was perpendicular to it closer to the cab. In an instant the grill back by the tailgate seemed to just shoot up into the air, completely clearing the tailgate and from my vantage point it looked like it went higher than the cab of the truck. Everything seemed to go into slow motion, I can still see the grill as it topped out and started coming down. I was already braking hard and I could hear cars just behind me on either side locking up their tires on the pavement. I remember thinking, this baby's gonna hit and tumble and I'm gonna have to dodge it or I'm gonna die, or at least get hurt real bad but something totally unexpected happened. When that grill struck the pavement it disintegrated into a shower of parts that shot across all three lanes of traffic! It looked like a bomb went off when it hit, the only part that stayed in tact was the cabinet section that had been directly below the grill, it simply hit and then slid off to the right side of the road. Wheels, side tables, grates and grill parts went everywhere. I was down to about 5 mph when I actually got to the debris and I just swerved between the bigger pieces and went on, the cars around me had to stop completely. If I had been much closer to that truck when this happened it would have taken me out. I never would have thought that the air could have gotten underneath something that heavy and propelled it up and out of a truck bed like that but it did and it looked like it was shot out when it went without any previous movement or noticeable lifting before it went up.

All that to emphasis, don't follow pick up trucks, stuff does come out of the beds and it could get you!

Ride safe!

[GeorgiaRider]

Thanks for the reminder. I was following a truck once (in my car at the time) and one of those heavy wheelbarrows came flying out of a truck onto the interstate. I swerved and missed it.

[tucker92]

Good information. I never gave that a thought.. but will now!

[charnotx]

That is pretty dang scary! I would hate to have something like that happen. Glad to hear you made it out safe.

Makes you wish someone had a GoPro camera on their bike to capture the grill explosions!