HOUSTON – Imagine seeing a giant, steel spool roll toward your car down Interstate 10 near Wayside and McCarty streets.
It happened as Dusty Dickerson was behind the wheel. He said he saw the spool as it started rolling off of the truck onto the freeway.
“We're lucky that we had an opening that we could take advantage of," Dickerson said.
Somehow, he and his wife MaryAnn did not get hurt. They could not say the same for their car.
"It hit the front bumper and it's all scraped up here," MaryAnn said. "It sliced this tire and gave us a blowout and shredded it. And we ended up driving on the rim."
She said finding out who is responsible for the damage has been more confusing than navigating Houston’s highways.
She told KPRC 2, "No company will come forward and say that they are the responsible party. I've called three different companies and had no luck."
A TXDOT spokesman said the Crash Report Online Purchase System tracks crash reports statewide at www.dot.state.tx.us.
She said she got several possible leads but no one has admitted ownership of the spinning spool. The dents and the other damage on the Dickersons' car remain. Their encounter was the first of two in several weeks on the same stretch of Interstate 10. They hope they are the last to encounter the lost spools on Houston’s highways.
"Just make sure everything is belted down. It's very dangerous if things come flying off," MaryAnn said.