Was driving home along the M27 last night. I'd moved over from the fast to the middle lane to let a Merc. pass by and just as I did so a flat bed scaffolders lorry moved out from the slow lane. Within a blink of an eye, what I can only describe as piles of cr*p started flying off the back of it.

I literally had nowhere to go and braking didnt stop me from ploughing headlong over it all. I recognised a white hard hat as it bounced along the carriageway towards me, whacked the front of my car with an almighty bang and flew off towards the central reservation. (There were actually 2 but one went into the fast lane where the Merc driver did a good job of swerving to avoid it but then spent the next 50 yards or so fishtailing....).

There was loads of other unrecogniseable crap flying off there that I hit so when it finally dawned on me what had happened I put my foot down to catch him up but there was an extremely violent vibration in the car. I was determined to get his reg. no. (which I did) before pulling over but when I got on to the hard shoulder, turns out I had a puncture in the rear near side

Upon full inspection this morning, damage is as follows:
Punctured rear tyre
Smashed front number plate and an impact dent in the front lip (with courtesy white paint) where the hard hat hit.
A dent on the underside, immediately behind the front (passenger) wheel where an unknown object has flown up when I've driven over it.

I am really really p*ssed off to say the least. I'm off to pay a visit to Officer Dibble and then down to Honda to get an estimate...... What a great start to my Christmas break.

 

Sorry to hear about this but it could have been worse - I saw a flat bed truck on the M25 once that was shedding steel billets that looked as if they weighed a ton each. Luckily no cars were hit because if they were that would have been curtains.

Bl**dy things didn't ought to be allowed on motorways and frieght ought to go by rail IMO (and the authorities should target this sort of thing instead of booking miss Daisy for doing 8mph over the limit when she passes a scamera ).

I hope you get it fixed up OK without too much pain but you didn't get hurt and thats got to be the main thing .

 

I'm really sorry to hear what has happened to you. As a recent recipient of damaged caused by another driver I really empathise with what you're feeling.

 

Well hopefully it was reported by other drivers and the polis can do him (and you not suffer through your insurance).

I think this is treated quite seriously in the courts if it can be proved.

The potential consequences don't bear thinking about

 

Sorry to hear that, I know how you feel. I did a similar thing, although with my civic (lucky that day I wasn't in my S).

Was overtaking on the motorway and suddenly there was a massive white bucket right in the middle of the lane. Nothing I could do but to hold on to the wheel Smashed, 100yards down I see a Van with its side panel down and still bits and pieces falling off.

 

Get down and see the police IIRC this is quite a serious offence

 

Thanks guys,

You're right, could've been a whole lot worse and lucky that nobody was hurt.

A couple of weeks of the police taking a zero tolerance approach to this kind of thing would do no harm I'm sure. Problem is they're all doing "paperwork".....

Even if the police don't / won't act I'll track his insurers down via the Motor Insurers' Database and approach them directly. No way am I ending up out of pocket for this. Grrrr

 

Best to be philosophical about these things - my son recently span his Lotus on some diesel oil and he's now looking at a

 

Surely the police will be able to find some footage on the CCTV cameras that all motorways seem to have these days?

 

Sorry to hear of your damage

The police should take this seriously. I hope you got the details of the Merc driver as well.