Welcome to the house of the surly curmudgeon

Mission statement
My mission is quite simple. To bring up the questions nobody else seems inclined to ask. In doing so I hope to accomplish two goals. One is to be able to air my grievances. The other and more important objective is to get people who share my feelings to ask, "Why do we have to put up with this nonsense ?" and in the process try to find a solution.

Question of the day
Why isn't there a limit on how high people can pile stuff into open bed trucks or if there is a limit why isn't it being enforced?

This evening while I was taking a friend home from a banquet ,celebrating the 75Th anniversary of the founding of the club to which we both belong. I was feeling pretty good until I struck some debris in the car pool lane of the southbound 110 freeway incurring any where from several hundred to several thousand dollars worth of damage to my car. ( I won't know until I can have a professional look at it) Fortunately we were not injured and the damage to the car appeared to be cosmetic so that we were not stranded. The fact remains that in over twenty years of running the freeways in south urn California I have suffered several thousand dollars worth of damage to vehicles belonging to me or my employers because of stuff that falls out of the backs of overloaded open bed trucks . On at least two occasions I have seen other people suffer the misfortune of having their cars pelted with assorted junk that fell out of a improperly secured load in an open bed truck. I doubt sincerely that the experience of having our vehicles damaged in this fashion is unique to us, yet I continue to see overloaded open bed trucks leaving a trail of junk for the rest of us to dodge if we can. If we can't dodge their leavings then we risk consequences ranging from expensive repairs to our vehicles to losing control and having a potentially fatal accident. I don't know if there have been any studies to determine what percentage of the deaths or serious injuries from automobile accidents were caused by cars slamming into debris left on the highway by drivers of carelessly loaded trucks. Another question is how much money has been lost by people having to pay for repairs to vehicles that have been damaged by truck droppings. For that matter how much money does Cal Trans spend cleaning up the junk these clowns leave on the road not to mention the number of Cal Trans workers and Highway patrol personnel who risk life and limb clearing lanes cluttered by these road hazards. The answer is two fold. One if there are no laws extent to deal with this problem then our prize fools up north need to take their attention off of what ever idiocy they are currently focused on and write up some commonsense guidelines on what constitutes a properly secured load. Note to said idiots, This isn't rocket surgery guys . If you can't figure out how to properly load a truck any professional driver worth their salt can explain it to you. Once these laws are out or if they already exist then the highway patrol needs to enforce them. with maximum rigor. These amateur hour truck drivers need to understand once and for all that if it is not possible for them to move the cargo with the rigs they have in one trip without creating a tottering heap than they either need to make multiple trips, obtain a truck with a closed cargo box or get a larger truck. Another related peeve is gravel trucks that don't have their loads covered by tarps as required by law. Anybody who has had to pay out hundreds of dollars to replace a windshield or headlight cover that was cracked by a piece of gravel flying out of the back of a passing truck would agree that the drivers of those rigs who don't want to take the time to roll back those tarps and secure them as required by law should pay a substantial fine. The proceeds can be used to fund replacement windshields and headlight covers for people victimized by these careless slobs. It should be understood that I regard legislation as a last resort and there have been times I have been dubious about the merits of "There outta be a law" when applied to what I regard as less then urgent problems. The fact remains that any driver who has had to put out money they had a better use for to repair damage from road debris or have had the hell scared out of them trying to avoid a ladder or a small boulder (or a large boulder for that matter ) that seemed to come out of no where would probably agree with the sentiment expressed by that great orator Popeye I've had all I can stand I can't stand no more"!