While driving to my window refurbishment project the other day, I was nearly hit by building materials that came flying out from the top of the van after the driver stepped on his brakes at an intersection from my left side.
When you experience something like that fist hand, where a flying 2 by 4 just misses you by half a second, you take the matter of safely tying up a load on your vehicle more seriously.
The driver clearly did not think about what would happen if he had to break suddenly at a stop sign and going down hill with timber and pipes on top of his roof racks and overloaded at the same time.
All is well if it ends well, but you can’t rely on that philosophy to minimise your risks and stay safe. A bit of common sense goes a long way but if you don’t have any experience transporting materials and equipment to your home repair or remodeling project pay for the delivery at your building supply store or make sure you can tie up your load well before getting on the road with your load. Be especially careful if you have to drive on the freeway and your load of materials is on your roof racks as it is harder to tie the materials on the roof racks than on the back of a utility vehicle for example.
Hope that this makes you think twice next time you are transporting building materials. It sure has reinforced my attention to detail and priorities when it comes to safe loads on the roads.