Ran over stray bucket on highway
#11
3 years ago, I HIT a lazy boy recliner with my suburban. It had fallen off of a pick up truck and landed smack in the middle of the lane sitting upright like it was in your living room. Everyone in front of me doing 75 swerved to the left or right but the guy directly in front of me waited until the last second. When he was clear and I saw why he moved over it was too late, I had no time to react so it was either possibly flip my suburban trying to avoid it or hit it square on. I chose to hit it without swerving. It exploded into a thousand pieces, spectacular. The poor guy who lost his chair was on the shoulder trying to back up the freeway to come back for it so it was easy to confirm it was his and get his insurance. Fender, bumper, hood, grill, didn't hurt anything mechanical other than headlights and was completely drivable. I was probably at 65 since I did brake as I braced for impact. The airbags didn't even deploy.
#12
I had a similar experience in Denver 4-5 years ago. Couple of local cowboys in a pickup had an unsecured double-wide chair in the bed. We were doing about 70mph when I saw it start to wiggle so I moved over to the next lane, and sure enough, out it came, hitting on all fours and sliding upright down the middle lane of I-70. The only thing missing was to have one of the cowboys sitting in it when it fell.