The vehicle in front of me was a pick-up truck of some sort. I guessed it belonged to a contractor or somebody working in construction because it had a black utility trailer with short walls.
After hitting some bumps where the road met with a bridge, I noticed something come loose in the trailer.
It was a bright orange 55 gallon trash can.
Whatever was holding it down became loose and this can bounced off the side wall and was skittering around the bed of the trailer.
I slowed a bit. If the truck's driver noticed, he didn't take any precaution.
I'm not sure how much time passed, but eventually, in a mile or two came another bump.
The can was no longer in the trailer. It bounced over the tailgate and hit the road. Since the truck was doing 60 mph, the garbage can was also doing 60 when it hit the ground. It bounced high into the air.
I slowed some more. There wasn't room in the next lane to the left and an emergency stop wasn't an option.
The can landed close to the shoulder for its second bounce and as it rose it stayed on a straight path along the shoulder. As it's arc reached a height higher than the roof of my car, I accelerated past it.
In the rear view mirror I saw it take smaller bounces and stay on the shoulder before I lost track.
There was a quick prayer of thanks for keeping the path of the can and my car from intersecting. While not a physicist, I do know even an empty can hitting a car's windshield or anything on the car would be unpleasant.
In another couple of miles I noticed a number of flashing brake lights. It seems there was a second can in the trailer. This one was attached to a hand truck. When I passed it in a lane of traffic, all the cars had successfully avoided it.
It made me think what the truck's driver might wonder when he reached his work site and was short two cans.
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