Stay Back 200 Feet!*

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Last week I spent an hour or so letting Safelite replace my windshield due to a chip caused by a rock. Combine that little pleasantry in life with the fact that I saw a dump truck on the road this morning and you get this discussion. If you spend any time on the road you'll see a dump truck. And, inevitably, you'll see a sign on the back of the dump truck: STAY BACK 200 FEET Avoid a broken windshield, stay back 200 feet!* Oh, there's no asterisk, but there should be. If you've ever noticed, the signs are written in print that isn't even legible at 200 feet. I mean, 20/20 vision means you can read something from a distance of 20 feet, which is about two car lengths. To make it a little more "visible" in your mind's eye (see what I did there?), 200 feet is the equivalent of standing on the home team goal line of a football field and reading the sign on the opposing 34 yard line. Let's face it, you aren't going to see a sign that says "Stay back 200 feet" from 201 feet away. So the next time you see one of those signs on a dump truck, just chuckle. That is, if your windshield doesn't take a shattering rock from what the dump truck is hauling. The sign, courtesy of an insurance company's web site: