Head out on the highway and you can expect to encounter other cars and trucks. Motorcycles, too – and maybe the odd wild animal that’s strayed onto the road. But motorists in the Houston area recently ran into something else entirely rolling their way down Interstate 10.
A giant spool of steel cable came tumbling down the highway by Wayside this past Thursday afternoon. The spool apparently came loose off an open truck that was transporting it.
The bizarre sight was captured by local motorist Victoria Martinez from behind the wheel of what looks to be a circa 1997-05 Chevy Malibu, and shared with the local ABC affiliate in the Texas metropolis. Judging from the clearance of the railroad overpass depicted in the video, we’d say the spool was a good thirteen feet tall, and might have been knocked loose when driving under the 14’6” bridge. According to ABC13 News, traffic came to a halt as crews worked to remove the spool and resulting debris.
I-10 is the southernmost cross-country interstate in the United States, stretching from the Pacific in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic in Florida. Along the way it passes through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama – but over a third of its length is in Texas, that section of which stands as the longest continuous untolled freeway in North America operated by a single authority (the Texas Department of Transportation). West of Houston (where this incident took place), the highway broadens as wide as 26 lanes.