Early Morning Pole Vault - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

**drgibson** · 03-17-2006, 12:24 AM

I had an interesting ride to work today. I believe that it is a Chinese curse to wish someone an interesting life. It’s true. Anyway I had to get fuel before I went to work so I took another route then usual. I leave for work about 5:30am. So after I fill up I start heading down a 6 lane road that leads to the freeway. Traffic was moderate and running about 50mph. I was going to be turning left so I was in the far left lane behind a Pickup truck. About 500 yards before the intersection of the freeway all of a sudden the truck slams on it’s brakes and veers right. Then it goes air born not like it was going to flip like it was going over a jump. Now as this started I was maintaining a good following distance but I wasn’t comprehending why the truck was doing what it was doing and I was closing fast I checked my mirrors and then hit the brakes, hard. It was then that I saw the light pole laying across all 3 lanes. The catch 22 being it was dark because thee friggin’ light pole hade just been knocked down. The truck that hit it the (one that knocked it down not the one that had just jumped it) had ended up in the parking lot of Lowe’s on the right hand side of the road completely out of view. I had to dodge chucks of concrete car parts, glass and try to stop before I hit it. I realized that it wasn’t going to happen so I headed as far to the left as possible and managed to squeeze between the end of the pole and the curb of the median. It looked like the truck that knocked it down was coming from the other direction because the base of the pole was knocked over into the right side of the road and the lights are in the median on this street. I’m glad the person in the Pickup swerved if he had just hit the pole without trying to avoid it I don’t believe that I would have seen it in time to make evasive maneuvers. I am 46 and I have been riding since I was 9 this is the closest call I have ever had and what is the most unnerving is that there was absolutely nothing I could have done differently had the end of the pole been on the median instead of about a foot away I would have gone down. The driver of the truck that had knocked the pole down had fled. No one was injured and no damage to the bike or tires. The stain on the seat doesn’t count.