Motorcyclist Killed By Flying Mattress

[bryan52577]

PRAIRIESBURG, Iowa -- The Linn County Sheriff's office is investigating a fatal crash in which a motorcyclist was struck by a mattress that flew out of the back of a pickup truck.

 

Police said John Saddler, 73, of Cedar Rapids, was riding his motorcycle near Prairiesburg on Saturday afternoon when he was struck by a mattress that blew out of the bed of a pickup driven by Roger Ockensfels.

 

Saddler, who was wearing a helmet, was knocked off his motorcycle and onto the shoulder of the road.

 

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

It is just unbelievable how many pick-ups do not tie things in the bed down! I see it all the time.

Bryan

[mini-muffin]

We've had motorcyclist's killed from stuff flying out of pick ups. Scary out there never know how they're gonna get ya.

 

Margaret

[BoomerCPO]

Not long ago while riding on the Interstate heah in Loozeeanner I dodged a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood that blew out of the rear of a pick up truck.....with both of us going 75mph.....It flew right over me and the scoot....cleared my windshield by less than 12 inches.

Boomer....who sez even the drunken pygmies don't do stupid crap like that on the road.

[BuddyRich]

I will even tie down a single 1x4. Its stupid to think something cannot fly out of the bed of a pickup.

[Iowawegian]

Saw that in our local paper this morning....just reminded me of when the hubby and I were going to Spearfish last year on I-90. One lane road construction and a pick up camper with bikes tied to the back merged onto the interstate right ahead of us.

All of the sudden the bikes dropped down dragging on the cement.

Lucky for us there was an exit we took. Bikes hit the car right behind us.

[Guest tx2sturgis]

I hope they charge that pickup driver with involuntary manslaughter. In reality, he will receive a small fine...

[GeorgeS]

Whenever I see something like this ahead of me on the road, I slow down,

pull to the right, or stop, but in any event I let the suspect loaded vehical dissapear in the distance ahead of me.

 

On two seperate occasions after slowing down, I watched the stuff fly off the pickup truck in the distance ahead of me.

 

Nuff said --- Ride safe my friends

[miller47]

while in dallas i followed a pickup on to the loop and just happened to look in the bed and saw a china cabinet without anything tied down pulled into 3rd lane as it flew out and broke up all over 4 lanes

[wes0778]

I hope they charge that pickup driver with involuntary manslaughter. In reality, he will receive a small fine...

 

Just a suggestion, but riders in that area/county should be on the phone, or send letters or email, to the local prosecutor demanding the driver be charged as mentioned above!!!

[DragonRider]

I was going home in my van on 1-610 in New Orleans one afternoon, in the hammer lane doing about 60. I was about 6-7 car lengths behind a pickup truck that had a couple of alum ladders tied to the bed of the truck. all of a sudden one of the extension ladders started extending itself, when it reached its full length it fell out of the truck, nothing I could do, it was sliding down the interstate fully extended to about 24 ft, I tried to straddle it but it started turning sideways and I ended up hitting it with all 4 wheels, tearing the ladder to shreds but luckily not doing any damage to my van expect for a big dent on the bottom side of my gas tank.............glad I wasn't riding on a bike at that time...................

[kantornado]

Several years ago my wife and I were traveling north on hiway 287 in the car (thank goodness) when a pickup going south lost a 2 drawer file cabinet and it hit the hood

and windshield and took out the drivers side rearview mirror. We had glass everywhere in the car and we were very lucky. Of course the truck was never found..........Ron

[Snaggletooth]

I have an account I stop at everyday that is next to a lumber yard. The things I see being hauled out of there unsecured is scary. A while back a pick up had about 10 sheets of sheetrock propped against the tailgate and leaning against the back of the cab with no tie downs at all. He cut in front of me on the frontage road and hit the Interstate. As soon as I got off the ramp I got past him as fast as I could. I could see the top sheet lifting up as he got up to speed. Did not want to be behind that one at all.

 

I shop there for supplies now and then and I asked one of the the yard guys about rules on loading. All the buyer had to do is sign a waiver if the yardman had any issues with the way it was being taken out. Yep.....that's the old cover yer a$$!

 

I feel safer when a waiver is involved.

 

Mike

[KevinsDa1]

I saw a guy on my way home last night Driving an SUV down I94 North of Chicago with a matress of top of it, he had the back and the side tied down, but the front was sort of picking up with the force of the wind. He was probably tooling along at 60MPH. Scary stuff indeed.

 

Kevin

 

[ediddy]

One of my insureds was riding his bike a few weeks ago and he was behind a semi truck. A pickup was in front of the semi with a smoker grill on the back. The lid of the smoker flew off. The semi swerved into the right lane and all of a sudden the motorcyclist was looking at a steel smoker lid in front of him. He hit it and went down. Lost his little finger on one hand, cracked ribs and bruised pretty bad. Will be out of work for a while. The pickup driver had mininum liability, $25,000, but my insured didn't want uninsured/underinsured motorist. You know, looking for the "cheapest rate". He wishes he had it now. Anytime I see a truck with something in the back, a truck with ladders on the top or a log truck I drop back and get around it as soon as I can.

[Venturous Randy]

The pickup driver had mininum liability, $25,000, but my insured didn't want uninsured/underinsured motorist. You know, looking for the "cheapest rate". He wishes he had it now.

 

I upped my coverage after what happened to Yammer Dan. I had uninsured/underinsured motorist and upped my coverage just to bring that part up even more. With as many Mexicans running around here in east Tennessee without insurance or a drivers license, a person is a fool to not to have good coverage.

My wife, last summer, was coming back from Alabama and ran over a mattress or box springs on I59 and tore up a bunch of stuff under her Maxima.

RandyA

[ediddy]

Smart move Randya. A couple of years ago one of my insureds ran over a ladder in the road in his van. It did $8,0000 damage.