Sure Amaged Me Tonight

Dottir had a flat tire on the interstate tonight and wifey and I got it fixed just about dark.
Had flashers on the pickup and safety vest on BUT some drivers in open lanes just did't think it was that important to switch lanes.

Rant Over

Make that Amazed me

Some of the people just OWN that lane and don't need to share.

That was always my biggest fear when we had the trucks running, road side break downs. Especially at night. People just do not watch where they are doing much anymore. They are too distracted with things in the vehicle with them. Load music, cell phones and etc. This is really true on the free ways. Wide open road just seems to encourage then to pay less attention to what they are doing.

Just moving over one lane when it is clear/open is too much trouble for drivers today. Moving equipment is just hair raising at times. Enough lights to make it look like a Christmass tree and still be buzzed by people.

Just glad you and your daughter are OK. It is amazing how dangerous simple things can be.

Neighbor doesn't like me so he likes to play chicken with his grain truck makes you wonder and like you said people are not moving over you think people would realize how fast things can happen. Did see once a guy in a hurry passed a semi on interstate doing better than 70 and a tire blew just when he got ahead of the semi it was amazing that there wasn't a huge wreck.

glad everyone is ok

I work road construction. They will slow down and move over for a squirrel, but they will drive two feet from a person at seventy miles an hour.

Glad everyone is OK. I taught my wife and daughter years ago that if they got a flat to just drive on it slowly until they could get off the road. Rims are cheep. We had a van tire blow out on I 94 in Wisconsin a couple of years ago. Told my son to drive to the next exit ( a couple of miles) and then to a restaurant a couple miles further down the road. We changed the tire in complete safety. It sounded terrible but there was no damage to the rim at all. I blew a tire on my Corvette going 85 mph, slowed down and drove the couple of miles to a parking lot. Again, no damage to the wheel at all. The wheels have a wide flat area and the tire bead won't allow the rim to touch the road. Just my experience. I thought it might help someone else out in a similar situation.

I know what you mean. I try to get over anytime I see someone on the side of the road. The only time I don't is if I can't because someone next to me can't see them or isn't looking far enough ahead to see them to let me over. I know it isn't fun being over there and I try to give them as much room as I can. Here in Michigan the law requires you to pull to the shoulder for an emergency vehicle (cop car,ambulance, fire truck) to pass, and also for you to move over when there is a stopped emergency vehicle,tow truck, or road maintenance truck/workers on the road or shoulder of the road. If you can move over, the law says you must slow down to a safe speed. Most people do move over for a police car, they're afraid of being stopped. But if you're a road worker or a tow truck driver, you can't ticket them, so it's full speed past you for most of them. I don't think that most people here in MI even know that the move over law applies to road workers and tow trucks as well as police and fire vehicles. Many times when patching potholes on the freeway we will be driving on the shoulder having to drive into the slow lane a couple feet to go around an overpass abutment, and people will still pass you in the same lane you are 2' into. And for many of you that haven't walked on a freeway, it's a lot wider than you think when you're trying to patch potholes on the other side and cars are coming at you at 80 mph. Many times on the big potholes you have to throw the majority of the patch from the shoulder at the pothole in the middle, because you usually don't have enough time to run in front of both lanes of cars to get more than 1 shovelful in it. A lot of people just plain drive like jerks no matter what they are doing.

glad you made it out ok. I'm beginning to believe that 75% of the people that drive shouldn't!

I'm glad no one got hurt. In a situation like that there are no minor injuries if a car hits you. Your life is on the line. Sometimes I think one of the qualifications for passing a driver's license test is to change a tire on the driver's side on a busy highway. The feeling of a car going past you inches away from your backside is awsome and not pleasant. Before we put a third axle on the combine trailers changing tires along the highway happened too often and it always happened on the busiest highways. Truckers are OK but the four wheelers are something else.

Several years ago I had a flat on the interstate. Got out to start changing the tire and decided the heck with it same thing nobody was moving over. I got back in drove on the shoulder with my flashers on to the next exit, ruined the tire, the rim was still OK and I wasn't road kill so all was good.

My brother's neighbor was changing a motorhome tire in Arizona some years ago. He was hit by a semi and did not survive. The trucker did not stop, it was hit and run!

Reminds me of the time I was travelling on I-78 around Summit, NJ. Morning traffic, moving around 60 or so. Suddenly, a lady in a Mercury Grand Marquis right in front of me slammed on the brakes. Just about stood her car on its nose. I had a big truck with a full load. Missed her by inches. Even with a safe following distance, a car will still stop a lot shorter than a loaded truck. Had I been following a bit further back, somebody would have surely pulled in between us. Turned out it was a squirrel had run out in the road.

What amazes me is that people will risk their lives literally over some stupid animal, whether it be a squirrel, rabbit, or woodchuck out in the road, but will endanger another human being. Some really warped twisted thinking there.

I sure would think hard about ruining a tire or rim just to get off the highway anymore before changing that tire. At least the rain let up for you.

About 15 years ago I was working on a job site when a guy walked over to me and asked if I could help him. He had an older car, and the wheel studs had broken on one wheel, causing it to come off.

It was rush hour, on a busy two lane road. There were very narrow shoulders, and relatively deep ditches on both sides, but he had gotten lucky and had been able to pull into a concrete drive, so he was well off the road.

So, I go over to help the guy. The plan was to take one stud of each of the other tires and at least get it mobile sop he could get home. We were in the process of doing this when the home owner drive in. He simply drove around the guys car, and pulled into this garage....

The next thing we know the guy was back outside ranting, raving, cursing, and raising holy he-double at, and about the man being in his drive. He kept on with something about his wife would be home soon, and that the car would be her way. It's not like she couldn't go around it just as he did. Further he continued his tirade by saying he had already called the cops. He soon turned his attention to me. Given that I am 6'1" plus, and tend to not deal well with idiots, and he was maybe 5'6" and definitely being an idiot, I didn't stand for his crap and told him exactly what I thought of him and his tirade.

Shortly after that the cops showed up. We had maybe 20 minutes left to be done with what needed to be done, and told him that. Even so, the cop made the guy move his car out of the drive, and onto the side of a busy road to work on it. I couldn't believe that the cop was that big of an idiot to put us in a position like that just because some guy was raising hell, for no reason, about a car broken down on his property.

With the car on the side of the road, it now took us nearly an hour to get it fixed because we had to contend with trying to jack it up with it sitting in a ditch. Finally, get got done and were standing there talking about the whole incident for a minute.....when the guys wife finally got home.

Had we been left alone to do it in the drive, we'd have been long gone before she got home. Found out later that the homeowner was some self important, local politician, who thought he was better than anyone else. I can only guess that's the reason the deputy submitted to his stupid ranting desires like he did. I almost called the sheriffs office to file a complaint against the guy for putting a motorist at risk for forcing the man to put his car in traffic and in a ditch, but I held off.

In reality what I wanted to do was to throw a few handfuls of roofing nails in/on the guys lawn, and drive and see how he felt broken down on the side of the road with a flat. Fortunately I don't always do the things I would like to do.....LOL....and just pray that karma will eventually catch up with him.

Hi Glad you got everything fixed ok and everybodys safe.. I know what you mean, I was heading back from town and saw one of my customers hay trailers in the ditch minus a wheel and the load. I called at his farm to see if he needed help as he's on his own. He found a wheel and we went back. we had to get the trailer on the shoulder to do anything with the ditch side wheel.

I had my truck with 4 ways flashing 30 + ft back he had the tractor with beacons and 4 ways going on a straight flat road so you could see for miles. Nobody including the truckers slowed or pulled over. I just said I'm done here were gonna get killed by some idiot speeding and texting before we are done, it's not worth it. we put my truck on the front picked the back up with his loader and pulled and carried the trailer 2 miles home and he fixed it in his yard and went back that night when it was quieter for the load. In that situation the safety vest was just gonna look good if something happened, and they had to come scrape us off the highway!!!!!!.

One of the ADOT highway maintenance men took a crew cab full of summer interns (high school and college kids) out to a jobsite to do some work. On the return trip, he had a flat. He pulled over onto the wide shoulder to change the tire. He made the interns stay inside the truck while he changed the tire. A drunk woman in a big Lincoln came along and drove right into the back of the truck where he was standing. He was killed; the kids weren't hurt. You can't be sure of being safe even on a wide shoulder of a road.

A few years ago I was changing a wagon tire on a fairly quiet road and off in the distance I could hear a group of those loud screaming sport bikes coming. They had 3/4 of the entire road to get past me and they opted to get so close to me while doing @70 that I had to run for cover under the waggon. I bet those kids had some laugh over that

Now that you mention Karma, this happened yesterday. I was travelling along a 4 lane secondary road in the vicinity of a hospital. A driver came flying down a driveway, entered the road without even slowing down, almost hitting me. Given the 4 lanes, I then passed him and continued on my way. A mile or so down the road, 4 lanes went down to 2. As I was going into the 2 lane section, here comes this guy trying to pass me in the closed lane. As he pulled in behind me, I saw him giving me the finger. I just waved. Now, for the next mile, he tailgates me making all kinds of obscene gestures. Then, the traffic ahead of me came to a sudden stop. As I was stopping, I heard tires screeching and a crash. I see in my mirror that another car hit this guy in the rear. All of this was the result of him following too closely. Nobody hurt, a few bruised egos, and what goes around comes around.

I was changing a driveshaft on a tour bus in Waikiki one day, and heard the crunching sounds of my safety triangles being run over. I pulled my feet in just about the time the bus driver starts yelling at the car driver. I hear the car driver say "what you gonna do about it?" Bus driver said "nothing, but that ------ off mechanic under the bus has a big hammer, and I hear him coming." The guy took off before I got out from under there.

Well 2 x now I have keep driving on flats just to avoid changing them out on the roads ! Rims were fine. Tires were likely junk before I keep driving on them.

Here you have to have a state permit in order to do any sort of repair work on a vehicle on the interstate other than your own, which means that you have to have all the lights and triangles, insurance, and certificates of training. So it may be just a little safer for those so equipped.