I was on my way to Louisville early this morning when I had a very unusual encounter. While motoring down I-64 at somewhere around 100 mph, with no car in sight, I began to crest the top of a hill when suddenly I spotted it in my lane. There was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid it. Laying lengthwise smack in the middle of my intended path was a huge drive shaft. I grabbed the wheel with both hands and held on as I centered my car over it. The noise was excrutiatingly painful and the whole car shuddered. I just knew that it had to have tore the living snot out of something. It seemed as though my car's underbelly had been gutted. There on the shoulder was the culprit an eighteen wheeler whose driver was standing outside the cab watching this take place. Immediately I slowed down to a snails pace and watched my mirrors for signs of leaking fluids. There were none. Whew. Smoke? None. Parts? None. I pulled over and got out to survey the damage. My front fascia had to be gone. I looked under the car with trepidation. First the rear. Everything seemed to be intact. Whew. I walked around to the front. The bumper was still there and undamaged. Whew. I looked under ... and there, there it was a huge gouge in the bracket that supports the front suspension but, everything else seemed ok. Upon further inspection the damaged piece was lower than the rest of the undercarriage including the bumper. I got lucky. This does prove something though accidents happen and the open road can be lethal. I do not believe that the drive shaft could have been avoided at any speed close to the posted limit. There is no doubt that my perspective has been changed somewhat by this incidence. Be careful out there. BTW I I went on into Louisville and drove back tonight. The car drove fine, thank God. Can you imagine what could have happened if someone had been behind truck when this thing broke free?

 

One of my friends who has a Integra Type R recently had a collision on the highway with a truck header.

It somehow managed not to destroy the front spoiler but made a big hole in the passenger footwell. Lucky that he didn't have a passenger.

I am glad that you are OK and that the damage is minimal.

 

wow, you and your S are lucky! very glad you got out of that situation pretty clean.

i had a similar situation. i was driving my civic (back in the days) and as i was coming out of a slow turn on the freeway, i see something in the middle of my lane. cars behind me and to my right, so i had no "out". anyways, it came so fast i barely had time to react. what i ran over was a HUGE ladder (the fold out type). i was going about 65mph. luckily, i went over the ladder, in the direction of the user if he/she were to climb it. if it was sideways....man, that would have been really bad for me and i'm sure, many ppl around me.

glad you're ok and your car is relatively undamaged. maybe you should have gotten the guy's info, just in case you find something later?

 

Also glad you are ok. This happened to me the day we bought our BMW330. Driving 45 behind a utility truck, it hit a bump and a circular saw blade bounced out, landed in front of me and was rolling along directly in front of me. Curb right, car left, didn't want to hit brakes 'cause it was too late and I didn't want the nose to dive lower. Rolled over it and heard a crunch at the front. Pulled over expecting the worst, but thank God BMW puts a plastic skid plate down there. It now has two big gouges in it.

 

I had a similar experience in my previous car. I was driving home very early one morning after working all night. There was overnight construction on I95, and they had just finished and opened up the lane I was in (I didn't know this at the time). Anyway I'm driving along and suddenly I see in the center of my lane a huge mound of something. It turns out to be asphalt...the roadway has actually buckled and heaved in the center of the lane due to some construction they were doing. It was too late to avoid it and I hit the heave in the center of my car- the wheels never hit anything. It made a huge smashing sound, like it just tore the underside of the car out, and immediately after this heave there is another one! So I hit both, and I figure I've just left my engine and transmission behind me. The I see the sides of the highway lined with the other cars who had hit this ahead of me. D'oh!

So I pull over and sure enough, I'm leaking oil. I can't see much else because it's still not light yet. Damn! I checked the oil and it was still full, so I limp the 2 miles home and park. The car is towed to the dealership where it needs a new oil pan, lower air dam, and front subframe. The police told me that 22 other people also hit the same thing. The construction company's insurance paid for all the damage, thankfully.

-Nick

 

I hit a possum the other day. I heard/felt a nice thud, looked at the undercarrige and all I saw was a scuff on the x-brace.

 

when I was living back in Australia, I was the proud owner of a brand new 1996 Mazda RX7 SP. This was number 35, of 35 race specials built by Mazda Motorsport Australia. It had a full carbon fiber front fascia, aluminum hood, magnesium BBS wheels and a whole host of other goodies.

One week after I bought it, I was driving on the freeway at about 65mph. It was night time. I came around this right hander and smack in the middle of my lane was what appeared to be a large cardboard box on its side. rather than try and swerve around the box, I headed straight for it.....understanding that any damage would most likely be able to be polished out.

So, I headed for it, and then all of a sudden this humungous BANG...a thousand shards of WOOD flew up, over and around the car. It was a FREAKIN TABLE! It must have fallen off the back of a trailer and the owner didn't even know about it.

Damage: cracked/smashed the carbon fiber in multiple places. $4500 for a new one! Luckily it was repaired and painted perfectly for (only) a $1000.

Get the car back and I'm all proud! Six months later my brother backs the towball and rear tray of his one tonne utility into the front spoiler again, wrecking the spoiler, fender, headlights and hood. Total damage: $10,000. I let insurance take care of that one, and sold the car not long after that. It was a bad omen, but I still miss her terribly!

Sucks when bad things happen that are beyond your control.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Legend1
[B]I was on my way to Louisville early this morning when I had a very unusual encounter. While motoring down I-64 at somewhere around 100 mph, with no car in sight, I began to crest the top of a hill when suddenly I spotted it in my lane. There was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid it. Laying lengthwise smack in the middle of my intended path was a huge drive shaft. I grabbed the wheel with both hands and held on as I centered my car over it. The noise was excrutiatingly painful and the whole car shuddered. I just knew that it had to have tore the living snot out of something. It seemed as though my car's underbelly had been gutted. There on the shoulder was the culprit an eighteen wheeler whose driver was standing outside the cab watching this take place. Immediately I slowed down to a snails pace and watched my mirrors for signs of leaking fluids. There were none. Whew. Smoke? None. Parts? None. I pulled over and got out to survey the damage. My front fascia had to be gone.