Last night at 11:30pm i laid my Mack over on hwy 151 west of Madison Wisconsin. I slid around 300 feet and ended up pretty much totaling out my truck, also destroyed a perfectly good load of sheetrock. In the 17 now years i have been driving a truck i have never done something so dumb as what caused me to do this. I took my eyes off the windshield and was fiddleing with something in my truck. It was just for a second or two. When i looked up i was on a dead aim for overpass cement pilars. and only about 3 seconds from hitting them at 70mph. Ya know what they say is true, when faced with an extreme situation you do see your entire life flash before your eyes. I had to choose to either hit the pilars head on or grabbing the wheel and turning away as fast and hard as i could. I knew at this point that there was not going to be a brand new still hot and fresh load of sheetrock in Green Bay in the morning, The only thing morning would bring is scraps of sheetrock either piled up ontop of a Green mack smashed into these pilars with a dead or severly hurt driver or Sheetrock laying in the ditch and all over the highway, And hopefully an unhurt driver with alot of explaining to do. Well as soon as i pulled that wheel to the right i felt the tralier start to pitch over. I tried the lefty righty thing to stabilize the tralier but it had a mind of it's own and wasn't having anything else to do with me. My truck was smashed into the highway. It wasnt a slow roll over laydown , it was a SMASH YOUR *** INTO THE PAVEMENT laydown, My mirror and bracket came flying thru the drivers window, (which was rolled up but doesnt matter anymore because the mirror shattered it) and decided to bounce off my shoulder and of course cut me and my shoulder is swelled up like a holloween pumpkin. Then the real painfull thing started a half a second later. First thing that hit me as i bounced down the highway was my laptop, i still have the swelling on the side of my head, and it hurts. ( ended up smashing 75% of my LCD screen too, i just paid that thing off too and they want $600 to fix it.) Then everything else that wasnt put away the proper way was flying thru and landing on me. I had chains and binders from my side boxes landing on me. I had to dig myself out the mess before i could even attempt to get out of the truck. Plus pens pencils empty water bottles keys tooth picks a small tv, severl cassates and cd's, and just everything else in the world plus the flying glass from the doors and windshields. I can not beleive that the cb didnt come off the dash with that cheap little velcro strip, funny. I cant believe that i have this much stuff in the truck, i get my new truck assigned tommorow i can tell you for a FACT ! that i will not be carrying all this crap.
Well they made me go to the hospital in a meat wagon and get Inspected and stampted with the USDA Prime #1 stamp, at this then it was 3:30 am, I went next to the hospital to some fancy hotel, spent 72 bucks for less then 3 hours sleep, i got my wife up and she drove 4 hours to pick me up.

Just to make you think is why i have told you this story of what i had happen to me.
Its not to tell you to drive safe - we all know that
it isnt to tell you to drive legal - who does that ?
Or to not be fidgiting with stuff while your drivng

The reason is to get you not to bring or have so much crap in your truck. Cause believe me, crap hitting your head at 70 mph hurts.

 

holy smokes!!! glad you weren't seriously injured...man that sucks

 

Isn't amazing how much junk we can stuff into a 6x6ft box and stilll move around? Glad to hear your ok, thats whats important, although I am better your gonna be more than a little sore for a few days.

 

It's pretty easy to get a bunch of crap in an area you practically live in... glad you aren't hurt any worse than you are. Drive enough miles, and eventually fate gets you and something happens, at least you get another chance. I had my own close call Sunday, a car rear ended another that was waiting for traffic to clear for a left turn, they collided at the exact moment I was beside them.(I was part of the traffic they were waiting for) If they had done a half spin, I would have been tagged... heck of a sound, that crunching sound of an impact, especially when it is less that 3 foot from you when it happens...

 

It's amazing what you think and what you can remember when time slows down.

Glad you're not too bad off.

 

Glad to hear you made it out relatively unscathed. Reading your post has gone a long way towards me cleaning out the stuff in my truck, too.

 

even now with my new truck i think i am carrying too much stuff. I am still a little sore but am back to work.

 

If you have places to keep it all secured, then it should be ok... that's just the way it is when it's your second home...