Lubbock Woman Nearly Struck by Flying Ladder on Loop 289
Do you ever have one of those crazy moments where you see something terrible about to happen and the whole world slows down as you process your next move? Well, that happened to me on the way to work this morning when a ladder came flying off of a truck driving in front of me.
It was just my typical morning commute, driving along the loop on my way to the station. I’m a fairly careful driver, so I like to keep my distance between my car and those ahead of me, which turned out to be a lifesaver this morning. A plumbing and HVAC truck was driving in front of me, the back of the truck full of various tools, cables, and of course, a couple of ladders.
Suddenly, one of the ladders seems to be picked up by a gust of wind and comes flying off of the back of the truck. Time immediately slowed as I took in my surroundings. There were no cars behind me and no cars in the lane next to me, so I quickly merged to avoid running over the ladder that was sliding down the road.
After the shock of what just happened wore off, I knew I needed to figure out a way to let the driver know they lost a ladder because based on the way they continued driving along, they hadn’t even realized what happened. Fortunately, the truck took the same exit off the lop as me, so I was able to follow them until I could see what company they were with based on the decals on the side of the truck. As we pulled up to the same red light, I couldn’t get forward enough to wave down the driver, but I noticed a phone number on the side of the truck.
Once I got to work and parked my car, I called the number and let the person that picked up know what happened. She apologized for the incident, asked if everyone was okay, and said she’d let the other employees know so they could hopefully get the ladder out of the road. While that’s all great, I really hope they have a talk with their employees about properly securing their equipment so something like this doesn’t happen again.