Unless you've never been on a public road, I'm going to guess that you've experienced at least one road hazard in your life. Maybe you were crossing the street on foot, or maybe you were riding or driving somewhere.Â
But weird stuff happens. Parts and cargo fall off of passing vehicles. People's tires explode. Crashes happen, and debris doesn't always get picked up in a timely fashion. Or deer suddenly leap out in front of you (executive editor Jonathon Klein literally had this happen to him once).
Road hazards take many forms, and they aren't always stationary.
Take, for example, this rogue tire that came off a truck somewhere in the vicinity, before someone whipped out their phone and recorded the following video. It's just bouncing and rolling merrily down the road, and could very much pose a threat to road users if a pair of quick-thinking riders didn't actively work to stop it.
The riders happened to be in the right place at the right time, and cooperated to bring the tire safely to a halt at the side of the road. Once stopped, it would no longer pose a danger to anyone else, no matter whether they were riding, driving, or walking.
So, that made me wonder. What's the wildest road hazard you've ever seen out on the road? How did you (or other road users, if they got there first) handle it? Did it have as good an outcome as this, or were the road users around not able to act quite so quickly?
Do you ever think about what you'd do if you had a situation like this? I know that I and various people I've ridden with will make nervous Final Destination jokes if we're anywhere near a truck that's loaded precariously with logs, but thankfully none of those jokes have come anywhere close to reality.
But if they ever did, being on bikes usually means you can just throttle away at the first sign of trouble. That's not the same as heroically saving all the other road users from a potential impending disaster, though, so if you've got a story to share, I hope you'll do so in the comments.