Saturday afternoon I was riding with 6 other bikes down the freeway when we had a breakdown. We all pulled over onto the shoulder to assess the situation. Unfortunately, the broken bike (mine) needed to be trucked since it wasn't able to move under its own power. While on the side of the road, one of the other rider's gloves blew off of his seat and was moving along the right edge of traffic. Even though we told him to forget about the glove, he attempted to retrieve it, causing the cars on the freeway to brake hard since they didn't know what he was doing. One car, which was behind a truck so he couldn't see, couldn't stop so he veered onto the shoulder to avoid crashing into the truck. He veered right into us! I don't know how he missed the bikes and us, but we had to scramble to avoid being run over! We almost lost our lives and/or our bikes due to someone worrying about a frigging glove! By the grace of god we were all spared, but it was a matter of inches! After getting the bike towed, we had a serious conversation about safety and getting everyone off of the road that doesn't absolutely have to be there, and if they want me to ride with this person again he will not pull a stunt like that again.
Bottom line people, the shoulder of a freeway or interstate is a very dangerous place so get everyone off that doesn't absolutely need to be there! You may want to reinforce this with the people that you ride with.