Can you believe it? I was driving behind this truck one day on the freeway and I was pretty far behind this guy like 4 cars behind. Then all of a sudden I see chunks of dirt falling off his truck and wham... hits my bumper and wind shield. I got pissed and passed him and saw that his truck was COVERED in dirt. That basterd went off roading and take his truck back on the road without washing it. It was covered in crap.

Finally I got the car back to my GF's garage and took a look at the damage. Found several scratches on the bumper from the dirt off his truck. And now, I have several scratches on the front bumper thanks to his carelessness.. I hope he gets what's coming to him.

Now I feel stupid for now writing down his license number. I should of so I can get him to fix my bumper.

Enough ranting.,... now its your turn to rant about your road experiences...

i think in some states if it snows and someone doesnt clear the snow off their car and the snow/slush/ice hits your car and causes an accident or damage to your car that the offending party can get a ticket for that. so would it be any different if dirt and mud were all over his truck and it hits your car like it did?

There is no snow where I'm at, so the guy was just careless and didn't bother to scrap off the dirt that was hanging onto his fender. I think he does deserve a ticket and a bill from my body shop.... =-/

should have got the plate number bud. without it there's not much hope.

Well, if he had mudflaps on, there is really nothing you can do. If he did not have mudflaps, he would be in violation, and you may have been able to recover the cost of any damage he did. The rule is a vehicle's body has to cover at least half of the wheel. If not, mudflaps are required...I should know, I got a ticket for it once!

My advice is if possible, don't drive behind a big ass truck with a lot of mud on it, unless you are willing to get hit with flying debris. There are these piggyback dump trucks that drive on I-280 near Cupertino all the time, and I swear they drop gravel ALWAYS. I learned my lesson to never be directly behind one, because you are guaranteed to get hit with something.

Happy Rotoring.

Kurt G

Had the same thing happen to me, but no damage thank god!

People wonder where road rage comes from...

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, and yes the guy should be cited for dropping debris on the road.

In the future though, consider that 4 car lengths at freeway speed is definitely not "pretty far behind". That will give you maybe 1/2 second of reaction time which as you found out is not enough to avoid anything - dirt chunks or worse -- a sudden accident ahead of you. Try keeping 4 seconds worth of distance from the traffic in front of you. You will suffer far fewer paint chips this way. And, if you are ever unfortunate enough to have an emergency situation develop in front of you, you will have a much better chance to escape injury.

I had a rock hit my windshield on my civic
the day before a car show

I had to replace the windshield the next day

Those kind of people you follow home block the driveway call the police that you have a hit and run and charge them. I was driving down the road and a golf ball size rock came down off a SUV and hit the windshield right behind the rearview mirror. Got just a nick. Thank you Mazda for a strong windshield.

was following behind [ a decent distance mind you ] a bloody great big yank tank F250 on a weekend trip from Sydney to Noosah ( around 1,600+ km each way ) when I found myself in slow-mo world, watching a fist sized rock get picked up by the rear wheel / tyre of the horse float being pulled by this bloody great truck thing..

I had time to consider options, and the car behind was too close to haul up on the breaks and let the rock fall short ( which on hindsight would have caused the rock to hit the road again, bounce, and lord only knows where it would have ended up ) - I considered racing up close to the truck, but the risk of the rock chipping my roof pissed me off too.

So I found myself auto pilot'ing so that the rock would hit the windscreen - I used the logic that if I had to get hit ( there wasn't anywhere to go - crossing to the other side of this little country two lane road would have been suicide as I couldn't see what was comming ).

So I figured shit - if the windscreen goes, I am insured for a new one each 12 months, that will be easy to replace, f*ckit - windscreen it is.

But the bloody think bounced - it put a tiny chip in the glass, I'm going to have it polished out as it refracts sun light at certain hours of the day on certain angles etc.

But none of this was the RX8's fault.

++dez;

ps: come for a night drive if you're in Sydney

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14557

I was driving down the highway one day in my RX-7 with my arm on the sill, fingers on top of the side-view mirror. Big-ass rock about 2 inches in diameter came off a truck in front of me and hit the mirror - missed my fingers by a few inches. That taught me a big lesson about always looking for possible sources of projectiles, and the importance of water-proofing cloth seats :D

Originally posted by Dez
was following behind [ a decent distance mind you ] a bloody great big yank tank F250 on a weekend trip from Sydney to Noosah ( around 1,600+ km each way ) when I found myself in slow-mo world, watching a fist sized rock get picked up by the rear wheel / tyre of the horse float being pulled by this bloody great truck thing..

I had time to consider options, and the car behind was too close to haul up on the breaks and let the rock fall short ( which on hindsight would have caused the rock to hit the road again, bounce, and lord only knows where it would have ended up ) - I considered racing up close to the truck, but the risk of the rock chipping my roof pissed me off too.

So I found myself auto pilot'ing so that the rock would hit the windscreen - I used the logic that if I had to get hit ( there wasn't anywhere to go - crossing to the other side of this little country two lane road would have been suicide as I couldn't see what was comming ).

So I figured shit - if the windscreen goes, I am insured for a new one each 12 months, that will be easy to replace, f*ckit - windscreen it is.

But the bloody think bounced - it put a tiny chip in the glass, I'm going to have it polished out as it refracts sun light at certain hours of the day on certain angles etc.

But none of this was the RX8's fault.

++dez;

ps: come for a night drive if you're in Sydney

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14557

wow all that went through your head during this rock's flight towards your car?? you had time to consider your options? haha if it were me, I would have been like.. huh what was that?