Hit Orange Construction Barrel on Freeway

[awsmsrv]

Had quite the scare yesterday. While in the #2 lane on the freeway, a double dump truck merging onto the freeway from the left about 100 feet in front of me hit one of those big orange construction barrels which bounced across the #1 & #2 lanes right into my path. I couldn't avoid it. I hit it & trapped it under the bike while doing about 55 mph. The bike started sliding, but, somehow, I kept it upright & eased over to the shoulder. I put the side stand down as far as it would go, about 4-5 inches short of where it's supposed to stop, but, with the barrel trapped under the bike, it was enough to hold the bike up. Trucker didn't stop. Nobody stopped. In fact, those who were merging onto the freeway from the freeway entrance weren't even slowing down to let me over until I stuck my hand out motioning to them to slow down & let me over. Called 911 & within 10 minutes a highway patrolman pulls up. He sees the barrel under the bike & asks, "How did you do that?" meaning, "How did you not crash?"

 

Anyway, I asked if he could try to pull the barrel out while I straddled the bike & leaned it to the right. He asked if I could lift the bike. What??? Almost 900 pounds, I don't think so. He got it out. It broke the right side lower cowling under the radiator & cracked the left side lower cowling in front of my left leg. No other damage. I stopped at my insurance agent's office to report what had just happened. Went back to the construction area to speak with someone there about the incident. The cop had already spoken with them about it.

 

Long story short, they are going to pay my deductible, which I said was all I wanted. They were all very nice about it all. Of course, I probably would have been as nice as I could be if I were in their shoes, too. So, it appears that everything is going to work out smoothly: bike will get repaired, I won't have to shell out for my deductible, construction company gets off easy. On top of all that, I DIDN'T GET HURT. Do I feel fortunate? You bet.

 

Soooooooo........

 

Be careful out there. It's not just the cagers out to get us. Those truckers & construction barrels are, too.

 

[darthandy]

Very nice combination of skill and luck. You should think about buying a lottery ticket. Glad you won the "I didn't get hurt!" lottery on this one. Disgusting that people wouldn't slow down let alone stop! Last week, a couple of days after getting my VR, I had to try to squeeze by a car in a sort of paved parking lot with gravel on it here and there. I cranked hard left to get by then had to slow down before exiting onto the road and grabbed a bit too much brake. Before I knew it, I was laying the bike down (As gently as I could!) as it over balanced and all that top heavy weight got it away from me. I shut it down and used a few well chosen expletives and tried to get it up by myself using a technique I saw used last year. It worked well on a 550 lb road bike...not so well on nearly 800 lbs of touring bike. As I prepared for a second try, a guy pulled into the lot and hopped out of his car, running over to give me a hand and saying something about how "these big bikes were murder to get up again". We got it up and I put down the side stand and thanked him. He said he was glad to help and hopped back into his car before I could come around to shake his hand and drove off. Hard to beat that for being helpful!

[BradT]

While following a couple bikes down I75 (I was in the cage), we were doing between 75-80 and a barrel jumped in front of the bike in front of me and he did the same. It got stuck under his bike and did he sway all over the place. The little red light on top of the barrel smashed and shattered on my car.

 

I was happy to see he did not crash and equally glad you did not. Scary i am sure

 

Brad

[Yammer Dan]

Glad you weren't hurt. Good one to walk away from.

[RandyR]

You're one lucky guy. Glad the bike will be taken care of too.

[awsmsrv]

You're one lucky guy.

 

Yeah, that's what my wife said, too. The cop complimented me on my riding skills, but, I know I was being watched over. It's certainly a combination of things that got me through.

[ThomWill]

Wow!! I can see a need for a new patch design... Not broken wings, but orange for sure.

[phertwo]

Those barrels are trouble. I was head back to Ontario from Quebec at night a few years back and had to drive through a long stretch of a highway construction zone. The lane started to narrow down to one lane with those barrels on either side. I was doing about 50-60km(31-37 mph) through the chicane, no other cars on the highway but me. Then I see up ahead the highway construction truck driving along dropping these barrels to section on the highway to the single lane. There was one guy driving and one guy on the back hurling these barrels over the side. As I got closer, one of the barrels that was tossed down did a little skip and ended up partially in my lane. I had less than a second before impact and I can still remember what happened as clear as day. My side mirror clipped the barrel, snapped back, shattered my drivers side window and flew right onto my lap. My girlfriend at the time woke up startled and looked at me with complete surprise. I was covered in small pieces of glass with my side mirror on my lap, all I could say was "Wow, you don't see that happen everyday!". I couldn't help but laugh as I had to enjoy a nice 10 hour drafty ride back home.

 

Glad to see we are all around to talk about these awfully mischievous devils!