We’ve all been there before: one minute, you’re driving down the highway wondering why the band Boston still gets so much airplay, and the next you’re swerving to avoid some bit of debris narrowly missed by the car in front of you.

Sometimes dodging isn’t an option, and a quick survey of the High Gear Media staff reveals that we’ve hit everything from firewood, to alligators, to bits of a toilet and even an aquarium tank during our accumulated years of driving.

While those incidents may count as odd, they don’t cross the line towards the truly bizarre. As WTSP reports, one Massachusetts man has a “you’ll never believe what I hit on the road” story for the ages.

Fred Dolan was driving to work on I-495 when he saw the car in front of him kick up something black. The telltale “thunk” meant that Dolan had suffered yet another bumper scuff, and while he recalled hitting the object hard, the man continued on his commute without pausing for inspection.

Stopping at a convenience store some 40 miles later, Dolan was astonished to see a two-foot-long machete sticking straight out of his bumper, like a prop from a George A. Romero zombie flick. Somehow, the car in front had run over the implement, firing it handle-first into Dolan’s bumper.

Dolan was quick to acknowledge his luck, saying, “...a foot up and a foot to the left and it’s a totally different story.”

That’s putting it mildly if you ask us, since we wouldn’t want to ponder the results of a machete through the windshield, or even worse through a convertible top. Let this be a reminder to us all: interstate highways can be a dangerous place, and machetes should be disposed of properly, not simply tossed out the window on the road.