Friday, October 1, 2010

Tie it Down

I was just reading a post that was written by Kevin and Evelyn (http://rvkhroniclesofkevelyn.blogspot.com/) about a near serious accident due to a ladder and a step stool that had fallen out on the interstate. Lucky for them they didn’t have a serious accident. They did however, have damage to their trailer.

It just blows my mind that people will throw anything in the back of a truck and jump on the freeway without tying it down. We spend a lot of time on the freeway and currently live on a two-lane state highway with a speed limit of 55 MPH and there are no shoulders.

I cannot tell you how often we have witnessed people hauling past our house with stuff blowing out of the back of their vehicles. Not long ago, someone lost a futon and it landed in the middle of the highway. We ran out and pulled it aside before it caused a serious accident. The driver never slowed down. I guess he didn’t realize it had flown out. I guess he will figure it out when he gets to his destination!

Someone else lost a beautiful antique china cabinet. The bed of his truck was full of antiques furniture. Nothing was tied down. He did stop and threw the pieces into the truck. You could tell he was very upset by it.

Another truck lost a yard swing and frame. He stopped, looked it over and drug it into the ditch in front of our house and left it!

Each week before we mow, we have to walk the ditch in front of our house to pick up trash. We pick up beer cans, beer and coke bottles, fast food containers, gloves, socks, feed sacks and paper.

We’ve driven down the interstate and have seen mattresses, ice chest, furniture, bags of clothes, boxes, tires, ladders, brooms, lifejackets, air mattresses, box springs and there was a large awning that fell off a RV. Recently we hit an icemaker box out of a refrigerator.

We don’t leave any kind of trash in the bed of our truck. We don’t want to litter. When we haul stuff we always tie it down. Sure, tying it down takes extra time, but we don’t want to lose anything in route.

I believe these people that have stuff in the bed of their trucks that are not tied down should not be allowed on the road. Not sure how we could enforce it. Stuff blowing out of trucks and cars can cause serious accidents and death.

Enough venting for now.