Yesterday, I was driving back to the southside of Atlanta from a couple of job site visits in Atlanta and NW suburbs. I was on I-85 about 5 miles south of the airport, running 75-80 MPH (barely keeping up with the passenger cars), I was not "slow-poking", I had worked my way over to the left lane, as I always run this in this area because I am usually keeping up with/driving faster than most traffic, I have no intention of exiting and most of the heavy truck traffic is in the right 3 lanes.
You have to understand this was about 3:15 PM, 4 lanes of traffic, the road is basically full of vehicles running 70-85 MPH at this time.
I came up on a "chip truck", a trailer that has a mesh rear gate in the back, usually filthy, hauled by a day cab that ain't much better. These are, in my 30+ years of observation on the roads, usually the worst-condition commercial vehicles on the roads. I noticed the left rear tire was flat and starting to come apart. Small bits of rubber were coming off, but the tire had not disintegrated yet.
I backed off the throttle, which I'm sure immediately sent the vehicles behind me into an orbit of ultra frustration, as they started diving to the right and scurrying around me as fast as they could. All the while, the tire continues to destroy itself, the chunks of rubber start getting larger and larger. I continue backing off, I'm trying desperately to move to the right but the oblivious drivers can't look farther down the road than 3' past their hood...
I finally get to start moving right....all of the sudden, the truck moves to the far left lane! I don't know why, I'm sure it wasn't because he was trying to shield other drivers from the tire. He moves back to the second left lane. Cars continue to fly past cars behind him, some have now realized the tire will soon come flailing off and become a large piece of debris. Lots of expensive cars and trucks, one is a fairly new Porsche. The Porsche driver is completely oblivious and I see him move closer to the truck and into the left lane.
Holy cow, there's a HUGE cloud of dirt/dust erupting from the rear of the truck, instantly blinding anyone within 40' of the left side and rear of the truck. It's a massive cloud of dust.... I'm in the second right lane now, I've moved completely across all lanes of travel. I see people hit the brakes, I'm suddenly past the truck and all the people trying to pass him.
Just a little bit of curiosity and paying attention would have saved a lot of them from being sprayed with dirt, dust and large rubber pieces bombing their vehicles....
You have to understand this was about 3:15 PM, 4 lanes of traffic, the road is basically full of vehicles running 70-85 MPH at this time.
I came up on a "chip truck", a trailer that has a mesh rear gate in the back, usually filthy, hauled by a day cab that ain't much better. These are, in my 30+ years of observation on the roads, usually the worst-condition commercial vehicles on the roads. I noticed the left rear tire was flat and starting to come apart. Small bits of rubber were coming off, but the tire had not disintegrated yet.
I backed off the throttle, which I'm sure immediately sent the vehicles behind me into an orbit of ultra frustration, as they started diving to the right and scurrying around me as fast as they could. All the while, the tire continues to destroy itself, the chunks of rubber start getting larger and larger. I continue backing off, I'm trying desperately to move to the right but the oblivious drivers can't look farther down the road than 3' past their hood...
I finally get to start moving right....all of the sudden, the truck moves to the far left lane! I don't know why, I'm sure it wasn't because he was trying to shield other drivers from the tire. He moves back to the second left lane. Cars continue to fly past cars behind him, some have now realized the tire will soon come flailing off and become a large piece of debris. Lots of expensive cars and trucks, one is a fairly new Porsche. The Porsche driver is completely oblivious and I see him move closer to the truck and into the left lane.
Holy cow, there's a HUGE cloud of dirt/dust erupting from the rear of the truck, instantly blinding anyone within 40' of the left side and rear of the truck. It's a massive cloud of dust.... I'm in the second right lane now, I've moved completely across all lanes of travel. I see people hit the brakes, I'm suddenly past the truck and all the people trying to pass him.
Just a little bit of curiosity and paying attention would have saved a lot of them from being sprayed with dirt, dust and large rubber pieces bombing their vehicles....
