BANG!!!

Out for a morning live shot on highway preparedness of ODOT for the upcoming winter snow season when getting off an exit ramp....BANG!! It sounded like we got shot, according to my reporter, Jacque. I knew what it was, so I stopped the truck and got out to look at the tire.

Well, as it happens, the tire was flat. Incredible how they always go flat on the bottom, huh?

Russ, our overnight desk guy, was dispatched to get Jacque and take her to our other live shot while I waited for our towing service to come and change the flat. Since I was on a busy offramp that had a sharp curve in it, I was glad that they were coming to change it. I was in a very bad place and had no orange triangles or flares to warn others.

The tow operator came out after a half hour and started to change the tire. I'd already dropped the spare and had that ready for him. I'd also loosened some lug nuts for him but traffic was picking up so I backed off.

He had a hell of a time changing the tire because he forgot his sockets and had to do all eight manually. That ate up a lot of time but eventually he did get it changed and I was off to head back to the station after a morning wasted.

And how bad was the tire damaged? It looked bad out in the field but when I got back to the station, I could have put my fist into the hole that was ripped in the side of the tire. All I have to say is that I'm glad I was doing 25 m.p.h.on the offramp instead of 60 m.p.h. on the highway.

Here's the pics. Sorry, my camera phone is crappy.