I had a little excitement this morning. I was driving down a two-lane road, speed limit of 55mph. Coming the other way was one of the local landscape rock trucks (like a large dump truck full of rocks), I'm guessing also going 55. We're under half a mile apart when my brain registers that something is happening. I then realize that he must have blown a tire because he's losing control. About a second later, we're closing at 90-100mph in the same lane. Hmmm. He's trying to get the truck off on to the shoulder on my side, but the truck is fighting hard. So, I hit the brakes...and he's still coming...and throwing up a huge dirt cloud. Just before all visibility behind him disappears, I see other cars coming behind him. So, I'm thinking my choices are (a) sit stopped in my lane and hope this dump truck doesn't hit me head on at about 30mph, or (b) pull into the oncoming lane to let him go by, risking getting hit by another car head on at 55mph. Decisions, decisions. I decide on "sit there." Luckily, I just watched him go by me on the shoulder.
To the driver's credit, and he deserves a good deal of it, he did a superb job of getting that truck under control and off on the shoulder. Taming a dump truck with a blown tire at 55mph can't be easy.
