I’m not surprised:

While by no means unique to California, pickup trucks and other vehicles piled high with improperly secured loads are a fact of life here, contributing — thanks to the laws of physics — to an estimated 140,000 cubic yards of road debris a year. That is enough to fill 8,750 garbage trucks, which would extend for 45 miles, said Tamie McGowen, a spokeswoman for Caltrans, the state transportation department. And it is increasingly hazardous, experts say.

In California, 155 people lost their lives in the last two years after accidents involving objects on highways, and states are beginning to address the issue.

A huge part of this is things falling off of trucks. And it’s not just big things. Sue has a nice crack in her windshield from an SUV kicking up gravel on the highway. And I’ve often been pelted with pebbles from trucks. Just the other day, we were driving in SA and a piece of metal flew up behind a truck and smashed Sue’s front light. It was only afterward that I realized an additional foot of elevation might have deposited it through the window and into my chest.

This is yet another example of how inconsiderate the drivers of big vehicle have gotten. Sue and I have been repeatedly cut off, forced into emergency lanes, pelted with unsecured sand or pebbles or forced to open our car door with a can opener because of some asshole in an SUV or pickup. It’s not enough that they are burning up all our fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere. Now they’re trying to kill us by not securing their damned loads.