…that if you run over a large chunk of cinder block which dropped off a truck in front of you with your Honda Fit that the big chunk of cinder block will puncture the car’s oil pan and that it will cost $84 to get the car towed to Brannon Honda outside of Birmingham, Alabama and it will cost $565, parts and labor, to get it repaired? Who knew?
It’s true!
I’d be willing to bet it would cost a good bit more than $84 for me to get my car towed to Brannon Honda outside of Birmingham, Alabama.
Not if you’re driving in beautiful Vestavia Hills, Alabama when this happens to you. I should have mentioned that in the above fun fact.
Ah. Well that’s different, then. $84 might just do it. 
good thing it hit something cheap 
My wife and I considered the Honda Fit before we purchased our Nissan Versa. Cute car, but I kept looking at it and thinking - “would the oil pan be punctured if an errant cinder block suddenly appeared in my path”? Now I know.
Only by truly living can we discover such truths, and I, for one, thank you for sharing…and doing this particular bit of living for me.
Eric
Now I know, why the Honda Fit is not for sale around here - too many cinder blocks…
In Washington state, they passed an [u]unsecured load law[/u] a few years ago. Failing to secure a load and subsequently having that load come loose and cause damage to someone else’s property is a misdemeanor. (If it causes bodily harm, it’s a gross misdemeanor.) Does Alabama have anything like that on the books?
One often doesn’t have time to secure the necessary identifying information from said ‘unsecured load hauling vehicle’ before it is out of sight… what with being focused on trying to avoid the ‘unsecured object’ that is now in your path. That makes getting the ‘unsercuror’ to pay for the damages a bit harder. Unfortunately. Worth a try though, as there may be folks who saw it? Maybe?
thank god you didnae hit an ARMADILLO 
Yeah. I asked myself the same question when I was thinking about buying it. Of course, I answered “no.”
This is why I blame myself.
Yes. This truck is only an abstraction to me now. It was truck-like in overall form and may or may not have been white, silver, gray, or some shade blue. There may have been a license plate. It’s now missing part of a cinder block. That’s about all I can do, which I think will be of limited help to law enforcement.
What a particularly ominous-looking piece of masonry. Are you going to adopt it at all, since you seem to be okay?
“In a full heart there is room for everything,
in an empty heart there is room for nothing.”
This is most good. I’ll borrow it, if you don’t mind.
When I see a truck carrying a load of stuff that is bouncing around and blowing in the wind, I give it plenty of room in order to make corrections if something does fall from the truck.
Special hazzards that I see are trucks carrying gravel that is leaking from the dump truck. I refuse to drive on certain roads near quarries because of all of the dump trucks carrying gravel. It isn’t a problem that you are running over the gravel, but it does bounce and hit your windshield. There is no way that you can safely pass a rock-carrying dump truck.
Another bad hazzard is large chunks of ice that has frozen on the top of semi trailers. The wind picks it up and the cars behind and passing cars run into it as it falls.
Dale, I’m sorry that you had this car damage and expense.
OTOH-- you COULD have blown out a tire, lost control of the car, driven off the road into a bridge embankment and been killed.
A car is just stuff… you got off lucky (and so did we)
'Round here it’s coal trucks. 
No. I did not know that.
I do know that if you have your Forester serviced and they mention that you should think about new tires, you should get new tires. Then. Instead of driving to pick up your daughter (who is returning from The Gambia) at Dulles Airport, 1.5 hours away and having the front right blow out on the D.C. Beltway in the rain at 4:30 a.m. This is something that I didn’t know on May 31, but I know now.
I also know that AAA guys really sometimes do deserve the last $20 in your wallet.
Right you are.