Worst Fears On The Road Just About Realized

One of my greatest fears -- and granted, I have many -- is that, while I'm driving, debris from a vehicle ahead of me falls out of that vehicle, and either that debris hits my car or it somehow causes me to get into an accident.  That pretty much happened just now as I was driving home from going to work a second time (only to stash some Subway I bought after dinner tonight to have for dinner at work, as I am pulling second shift tomorrow and Thursday).  I was two cars behind a car pulling a flatbed with a bunch of stuff loosely tied down.  The car between us switched lanes over, and when I saw that the stuff seemed like it could fly off at any time, I started trying to move over to the left.

Just then, that car went over a bump big enough that it jostled the stuff on the bed, and some of that stuff fell off of it and on to the road.  I know that because I saw some of that stuff fall, and I heard a loud "CRASH!"  And I was just having thoughts of my car going over sharp shards of glass and destroying my tires.  That's when I swerved to my left and accelerated so I could get away from the fallen debris as quickly and as far as possible.  I kept looking at my dashboard to see if my low tire pressure light came on, but it didn't.

Guess I dodged a bullet.  But dammit, that scared the shit out of me.  Why isn't it mandatory for drivers to tie down stuff on flatbeds to the point where it won't move while they're driving on the road??