If you’ve been a driver for more than a year or so, you have most likely come across a common driving safety problem — road debris — that detritus left, or sometimes thrown, onto our public highways by our fellow humans or often by Mother Nature herself. While it might often seem like a minor problem, impacting road debris can have serious, sometimes deadly, consequences.
We were once driving up a long hill road in rural Nova Scotia. As we neared the crest of the hill we were greeted by a lonesome vehicle wheel sailing along from the opposite direction — and headed right for us.
Fortunately, as the road was quiet, I was able to easily manoeuvre out of its way. The wheel carried on for several hundred metres before ending up in the ditch on our side of the road. Another few hundred metres up the road, a vehicle and trailer were pulled off to the side — smoke pouring from the trailer’s axle — the left-hand wheel conspicuously absent.
It was a funny moment, for us at least, but only because we weren’t hit.
For many others, though, debris on the road can be a serious deal. In the U.S. road debris causes around 50,000 crashes every year. Locally, the issue really hit home last June 6 when a 34-year-old woman driver was struck by a volleyball-sized rock that smashed through her windshield as she was heading through Burnaby on Highway 1. The woman died six days later. Where the rock came from is still under investigation.
A large percentage of road debris is caused by objects falling off other vehicles. If you’ve been on the road a while, you’ve likely come across these problems. Paint cans, glass shards, shredded tires, furniture and garbage are flung off vehicles because their owners have failed to take the necessary time to secure the loads they are trying to move.
I’m sure many people have seen the one where a mattress is being moved — placed squarely on the vehicle roof with the left arm of the driver holding one side and the right arm of the passenger holding the other. Strangely, it always seems like the smallest possible type of car is the vehicle of choice in those capers.
Securing whatever load you might have on or in your vehicle is a genuine safety concern. In B.C., there are pages of rules, mainly pertaining to commercial operators, around properly securing things you might be carrying. The basic fine in B.C. is $178 but that can rise substantially depending on the violation.
As we saw in Burnaby, flying items are the greatest danger to other drivers. This often leads to violent swerving action that can cause off-road crashes or chain- reaction events as we often hear about on major highways.
Damage to tires from punctures caused by sharp-edged debris can lead to control loss resulting in multi-vehicle collisions and even rollovers.
The other immediate problem is the potential loss of vision — either caused by an obscuring agent covering the windshield, like paint or grease, or the windshield being completely shattered. Property damage can also be significant when debris strikes the undercarriage of a vehicle. Often the damage doesn’t become apparent until days later — causing unexpected loss of vehicle control when you least expect it.
Other types of property damage can be dings or scratches from sharp objects, dented fenders, smashed headlights, wheel alignment issues and, at the worst end, a bent or twisted frame, engine damage or airbag deployment.
Taking a run to the local dump is part of modern life, but as drivers we have a responsibility for the loads we are moving — just like obeying traffic lights or putting on a seatbelt. It’s also important to consider cyclists and motorcycle riders who are especially vulnerable to the unwanted debris on our roads.
Glove Box: You could call people who don’t secure their vehicle loads turkeys. But what if the debris was actually a turkey? This past March, Ontario Provincial Police said a truck driver and a wild turkey both avoided being hurt somehow when the bird smashed through the vehicle’s window on a highway near Kingsville.
The OPP posted photos of the slightly dazed bird sitting on the truck’s floor beside the driver, having just obliterated the passenger side of the big rig’s window. No prospect of making dinner out of that bird — clearly, way too tough.
