I Was Injured By A Road

[shatto]

This is a copy of the letter I sent to the local consumer folks and our state roadfixers, Caltrans.
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June 10 was my birthday. I spent June 11 in bed. No, not because of that. Because I was nursing a painless migraine and sore neck. Why? Because, on June 10, I hit a bump in the road.

I was in a group, something like 'the pack' in a NASCAR race, except that we were not bumper to bumper and racing, but spaced and traveling at a safe speed in Friday commute traffic a bit before one o'clock.
Northbound, we had just passed where the 580 freeway, coming from San Quinton, joins the 101 freeway in San Rafael when I hit the 'bump in the road' caused by the insane engineering that allowed the footing for the road sign sprouting from the center of the freeway to spread, like tree roots into the number one lane. A wild guess is that the abrupt rise in the road surface is as much as six inches.

By the time the bobbling cars ahead of me registered, I hit the bump. The result of the left front of my Tundra rising so fast was that my body torqued so my head hit the side window.
That might be amusing but the problem with the entire scenario is that I have 'a bad neck' with enough disc problems that I frequently experience pain and burning in my right arm and hand and the often ensuing migraine headache pain, just like I had immediately after hitting the bump.

Hey, State of California, fix the dang road!

[VetteOwner]

lol they wont and dont care haha

they will fix it by jacking up your taxes same with IL.

IL has some of those oddities that it musta been an early saturday morning built road. those random humps in the interstate that kinda launch the car and if its anything like my old s10's shocks would keep bouncing. or when it gets hot the road will buckle and cause it to feel like hot taffy thats been lumped up roller coaster style haha.

anyways yea it sucks but ya shouldnt have been spacin out haha dunno how many times ive moved around shredded tires, bucket, random cone, etc on the interstate and the guy behind me just obliterates it. altho it IS very hilarous when you see a semi hit roadkill and sprays the car next to the truck haha

[bowtieguy]

recently i viewed a program on the history channel about America's aging infrastructure including that of roads/bridges, sewage, power plants, etc.

it seems just like the economy, we are headed towards a crisis as maintenance of the infrastructure is falling WAY behind. i don't see raising taxes as a short or long term fix. i say trim the fat, in the form of cutting back the number elected officials, both on the local and national level!

[shatto]

Yes, the infrastructure needs repair.
The problem is that politics has evolved to where any and all monies brought in by taxes is immediately spent on another giveaway program to get votes. The recent 'stimulus' being a prime example; it all went to union workers...who pay dues...that are spent to support democrats reelection bids.

[bowtieguy]

it wasn't my intent to bring politics into the thread...just to make a point that difficult and urgent decisions cannot be made consistently at any level of govt...at the local level or in congress...democrat, republican, or independent.

[IndyFetch]

In 2005, My uncle and I both called the IN state highway department about a huge hole in the right lane of I-70 eastbound around mile marker 19. It did not get fixed. Every time I passed that hole, someone would be 100 yards past it, changing a tire. I finally hit it, and broke my RF wheel. I called the highway department, and they said they wouldn't pay for it because no one had ever called on it before. I took it through several levels of state government, to no effect. That hole was poorly patched, and is still there today.

[VetteOwner]

yup haha eh its still better than what we had 60 years ago

[NotYourDay]

Here in NC its just starting to get better. Around the Charlotte area, the roads are almost the same way with potholes and bumps in the road, some bad enough to shred your tires. The usual fix was to just cover it up with a patch that would flake off within a month of normal weather but one nice storm and that sucker was already in pieces. Starting around the begining of this month though, they started to do something strange... They actually repaved a couple of entire roads, and according to many people that know more than I, they're going to do that to many of the major roads around here. Don't give up on calling in and complaining about the roads, eventually the right guy will hear it at the right time and set things into motion.

[shatto]

I recently had a physical and the doctor told me I was suffering a 'classic whiplash' and to do lots of 'range of motion' exercises as therapy; a shock as I was holding as still as possible to keep my head from falling off. Because of the pre-existing disc problem, the MRI was ordered.

[shatto]

https://picasaweb.google.com/mws9452...03742728288882
This is the 'After' video, I took July 1, 2011 of the road repair.
The big black patch is where they removed a hellish bump from the left side of lane one.

https://picasaweb.google.com/mws9452...36369403498226
This is the 'Before' video, taken June 13, 2011 of me going over 'the bump'
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I COMPLAINED. THEY FIXED THE ROAD!
Now, how about that.