Bruce HWY demo darby

[OLDFORDNUT]

yesterday a mate and I went from Hervey Bay to Brisbane auctions in my new (old) EL Fairmont Ghia,great trip down and mate was following me home with his immaculate 95 Mitsubishi wagon he brought when the car in front of me changed lanes and there was half a 40 litre drum in middle of my lane,car right beside me so i hit it at about 80kmh felt crunch and saw bits of plastic fly out as my car lifted at least two feet into the air and it spat the drum 10 feet up into air behind me(i did not see this) my mate said he ducked as it was going straight down into him as he was braking,i looked back in mirror and saw his car lift about two feet up and more plastic and glass fly all over , scared the living daylights out of both of us, my ghia plastic bar in middle of air dam is gone and i have minor damage to bar, his car has smashed grill headlight radiator and bumper bar,managed to do plastic repair to his radiator to get it home my car still never missed a beat. very lucky, when we got back onto hiway we saw at least 10 different cars with front end damage at next rest stops at Gympie and on road driving and i thought maybe most were result of same drum as my mate said after he went over it it was still in centre of lane.

[Bill_R]

that's a freaky and nasty one Any idea how it got there?

it's lucky all there is was damage and no injuries.

I was amazed last week while trying to hold 80 k's down a steep hill that has a speed camera at the bottom then goes to 60 k's I saw a cop car right up my tail. There was a huge brick in the middle of the road I needed to swerve around. The cop car was more interested in sitting up my tail then swerving from lane to lane and trying the same with others than stopping and removing the brick from the middle of the road. I could't have removed it with where it was lcoated.

[OLDFORDNUT]

must have fallen from someones ute and the Hiway was wall to wall cars so no chance of getting to inside lane and it was between the turn off to Steve Irwins croc park and cooroy nothing for 30kms except pine forests.

[flappist]

I got whacked by a sheet of gyprock in my GT-P just south of there and had a truck rollover on the other side of the road on the hill at Cooroy showering my EA with boxes of fruit.

Shame about the damage but lucky you are both ok.

There is a lot of traffic and it is a crappy road.

[BarryKLT]

As a motorcyclist, this sort of stuff scares the crap out of me.
I can only imagine the aftermath of hitting a drum like that on a bike.
Worst thing I've ever encountered lying on the road was a 6ft aluminium ladder laying in the middle of our lane on the Bruce Hwy just near the Ettamogah Pub. Was towing a boat north at night on a trip up to the Whitsundays. Thankfully we were in a Landcruiser and it basically walked over the ladder. The boat trailer didn't fair quiet as well loosing a mudgaurd and sustaining a punctured tyre

[gregaust]

I saw an out of control spare wheel bounce from a ute up ahead a while ago on the redcliffe bridge,hit 1 car and just missed a motorbike..Was nasty

[DJM83]

Damn thats freaky glad you are all ok

[OLDFORDNUT]

each time it went under a car it landed with cut half on tar,if it had landed on curved back it would have shot off into the medium strip or stuck under bumper so it could have been taken away, .

[fmc351]

Originally Posted by nicholas

must have fallen from someones ute and the Hiway was wall to wall cars so no chance of getting to inside lane and it was between the turn off to Steve Irwins croc park and cooroy nothing for 30kms except pine forests.

Pine Forrests stop near the Caloundra turnoff. The pine runs from there back towards Brissy, so I assume youre talking the old Beerburum turnoff (Glasshouse Tourist Drive now).

Ive seen a bonnet fly off a car being towed on a trailer at 100. Thats a big frisbee, I aint catchin it.

[fiery]

Wow.. that is a shocker.. thankfully you were both ok and by the sounds of it many others were ok..

There is supposed to be a number you can call and report road incidents which is maybe what should have happened (or hopefully someone else had)..

Thankfully the times I have headed towards Gympie or Hervey Bay the trips has been hassle free....

***touching wood as typing***

[OLDFORDNUT]

Originally Posted by fmc351

Pine Forrests stop near the Caloundra turnoff. The pine runs from there back towards Brissy, so I assume youre talking the old Beerburum turnoff (Glasshouse Tourist Drive now).

Ive seen a bonnet fly off a car being towed on a trailer at 100. Thats a big frisbee, I aint catchin it.

thats it the beerburrum turnoff,which i should have taken to pick up the tandem trailer i brought off ebay from Montville near Melainy as we would have got there sooner and missed the barrel.oh well thats life.

[HLC]

harrass the RTA or whatever the equivalent is in QLD for not keeping their roads safe, and make them pay for the damage. lol.

[MON10A]

its not just the bruise hwy,i nearly always stop and move roos, fallen branches general crap that cant fly up off the road especially on hills and corners.lost a xb gt years ago and seen a few serious prangs single and multi vehicle.never know you could save another ford from damage.

[OLDFORDNUT]

if we could have stopped we would have, narrow road shoulder and wall to wall cars doing 100 to 130kmh

[Keepleft]

Originally Posted by HLC

harrass the RTA or whatever the equivalent is in QLD for not keeping their roads safe, and make them pay for the damage. lol.

Yeah yeah, whilst I advocate that for genuine negligence in design, the road authorities are not responsible in this circumstance. Who is,- is the person who was driving the vehicle when the drum presumably fell off it.

Which is why police are meant to target unsafe loads, along with transport inspectors.

You must continuously scan the road well ahead, not just to the car immediately in front of you, remember - hazard perception.

When we get examples like this it makes you wonder why we'd bother raising limits.

On approach to such an object, one should give a quick flash of the hazards to alert FAR rear-approaching traffic.

[OLDFORDNUT]

Originally Posted by Keepleft

Yeah yeah, whilst I advocate that for genuine negligence in design, the road authorities are not responsible in this circumstance. Who is,- is the person who was driving the vehicle when the drum presumably fell off it.

Which is why police are meant to target unsafe loads, along with transport inspectors.

You must continuously scan the road well ahead, not just to the car immediately in front of you, remember - hazard perception.

When we get examples like this it makes you wonder why we'd bother raising limits.

On approach to such an object, one should give a quick flash of the hazards to alert FAR rear-approaching traffic.

hey why did i not think of that, i could have just stopped in middle of Bruce HWy chucked a couple of warning triangles out before hand to warn fellow motorists.
trouble with that is i would have been dead.yeah great idea man,
its about as informative as your other posts ive read in last year.

[flappist]

I thinl keepleft meant to flash your headlights or whatever. Of course up here once you have been flashed you spend all your time looking for a white 4wd hiding near the road rather than actually looking at the road.

[Sprint347]

we took dad's EL GT for a drive on saturday, a bed that wasn't tied down on a ute flew off the back and just missed us... wouldof been a disaster