Flying Boxes and Ladders on Our Freeways
Idiocy Meter
Asshole Meter
The blonde lady driving what I think was a black Ford F150 (looks like it) on the 101 North in Thousand Oaks definitely had a startle when she heard something fly out from the back of her pickup while going 70 MPH on the freeway. As we passed, I saw a lady staring perplexedly into her rearview mirror. Yes, ma’am, it turns out a fairly sizable folded-up cardboard box flew out from its stack and nearly smacked into the grille of another vehicle, which had to swerve to avoid the collision. Since this happened the same day we had to avoid a blue ladder that also likely fell out of a pickup truck on the 405 Fwy South, just after the 101 Fwy interchange, I think this is a good time to remind people to strap down their cargo. One of our regular readers astutely noted that improper towing and securing of cargo are the most common errors he witnesses with drivers in Los Angeles. In a town when we’re perennially stuck in traffic, let’s try to be considerate to others and not make matters worse by being too stupid or lazy to make sure that nothing flies out of our vehicles when we’re on the road.
Filed under: clueless, observation
Ha! A few months ago on Sunset near LaBrea there was a pickup truck 2 cars in front of me with a bunch of plywood boards in the bed. The door was down and no visible means of securing the boards visible. Of course Newton and his first law of motion (i.e. inertia) kicked in when the truck accelerated when the light turned green and a big plywood board slid out. Fortunately the person immediately behind was slow on the accelerator so no harm was done. But these yahoos had to pull over into the center lane and somehow find a way to retrieve their board which was by now being driven over repeatedly.
Yeah, people just aren’t that smart. I see evidence of that every day.
The truck is actually a Lincoln Mark LT, which is nothing more than a fancy, more expensive F-150.