From: "Bob W" > That's a scary - something's about to happen. > > It reminds me a time when I was about 21, hitch-hiking around Europe > with a girlfriend. We were in the South of France and were picked up > by an articulated wagon driven by a couple of gypsies. As they drove > off we realised they were drinking cheap wine from a bowl, and were > completely pissed out of their heads. They both kept trying to grope > my girlfriend, and the driver certainly wasn't in control of the truck > - the rear trailer was swinging all over the road and it was clear > that something bad was going to happen. > > It did - the back trailer hit an oncoming caravan, which was being > towed by a Dutch family of 5 people. The car and the family weren't > hurt, but the caravan shattered into matchsticks. The truck driver > took off at speed and tried to hide down a side road - not easy with a > truck that size. By the time he stopped, the police had caught up, and > they arrested us all, driving us back the way we had come. > > Naturally my gf and I gave witness statements against the gypsies, and > we were released after about an hour. I assume (and hope) the gypsies > were prosecuted, but we never heard any more of it. > > Luckily the family in the car were not harmed. A fraction of a second > earlier and they would all have been killed.
A number of years ago, I worked as a traveling service tech. One day, I chanced to find myself behind such a log truck, loaded in much the same manner ... except that instead of many small tree trunks, there were a fewer number, maybe a dozen, VERY LARGE, very long, tree trunks ... 3'+ diameter, more than 40' long. That log truck was hi-ballin' it. The road we were on was a hilly, two lane blacktop, and we were about half-way up a long, steep upgrade, double yellow lines the entire way, when I remembered there was a VERY LOW railroad underpass just past the top of the hill; and I began to wonder if that truckload of logs was going to make it under that underpass the way it was stacked. I thought not, so I backed off to give that log truck plenty of room. Behind me was some high-dollar import (BMW, Mercedes ... don't remember which) in a REAL BIG hurry. When I started slowing down, that import passed me in the no passing zone, right into the face of on-coming traffic; the driver blowing his horn the whole way, with his left arm held above the vehicle, one finger rigidly extended. He caught up with that log truck just about the same instant the log truck caught up with that railroad underpass. I was right. His load WAS stacked too high. The top 4 or 5 logs stopped going, mostly, even though the truck itself made it through ... for a ways. When the front ends of those tree trunks hit that railroad bridge, the other ends hit the ground and they started dancin' round like somebody'd thrown giant pick-up stix into the road. Right into that high-dollar import ... anyone remember the scene with the Lincoln in Goldfinger? That's one reason I *ALWAYS* carry a camera with me today. Oh, yeah ... it didn't kill him, but I don't think the insurance company paid off after they got the police report. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
