RR bridge strikes again

[dpendzic]

Another turn over at this RR bridge--has to be at least 20 turnovers in my life time

 

[RB70D]

We had one like that locally that claimed many trucks until a big full loaded cement truck took it right down.

 

[Smalltowner]

Where is that? Looks similar to one in Hillsboro Tx.

 

[Dean]

Far too many inexperienced people driving heavy trucks these days.

Dean

 

[grizz02]

that should buff right out

 

[flying belgian]

I understand hitting the low clearance but what makes them tip over?

 

[the tractor vet]

Well today we have people driving big trucks that should not be driving them . They do not pay attention to signs , they have no idea of how big they are , They depend on there GPS that is not designed to point out that hey your a big truck and can't go that way because you will not fit. Some times they get bad directions either from there dispatcher or someone that hqas no idea that a big truck can't go that way but they drive a car that way everyday and don't think about if a big truck can't go that way because of a low bridge or a bridge has a low weight limit and they tell the driver WELL THIS IS HOW I COME TO THE PLANT . Back in my early days of beating the pavement i ran into things that a big truck could not go . (now i did not mean i hit things) . One time that sticks in my mind was one load of road salt going to a township over in the hills of Pa. Nobody had ever been there before and my dispatcher gave me this load with a when every ya get there they will come and unload ya . Bev , my dispatcher had directions given to her by the township clerk . Seemed like and easy run . It was a nasty night in Nov. temps in the mid fortys with rain so that meant load had to be traped not a big deal there . Load went out east of Washington Pa. and north of I 70 up some back road in the hills . I get off I 70 and head north about seven miles of hills and curves . Hill on one side and a drop off down to a river/ creek on the other . Dark heavy rain plum nasty . On my bills it said once at the township house to go into the office and call this phone number and CHUCK will come down and unload you when ever you get there . I topped this one hill and went around a curve to the right then backmleft and down the hill and at the bottom was and old WOODEN BRIDGE with a three ton load limit and on the other side of the bridge was the township house . Now what i sur as all get out not taking 78000 lbs across that . No place to turn around . So set the brakes walk across the bridge and call CHUCK . Chuck goes into ORBIT as this is the forth or fifth time the Clerk has had trucks come in this way . No place to turn around and that means a vary long and hard backing job is at hand on a dark night in the rain. , i was NOT suppose to come in off I 70 but in off I 79 . If i had not installed back up lights in my dump trailer i would have had to set there till day light . I backed all the way to the interstate back west bound for 28 miles then north like 20 miles and back thirty miles on more nasty back roads and across many 15 ton bridges . Next one was back to Pa once again the next year. Directions were enter Pa on I 70 and get off the first exit and when you come to the stop sign turn left Follow that road south till you come to the big tree at the end of the fence and turn left , township hall is up on the left. Well the road was not bad for the first five miles then it went to dirt and gravel and i still have not found the big tree on the left at the end of the fence , Saw several fences on the left but no big tree and no township house . I get to a Y and the road really is not one for big trucks and it is like Nah i ain.t going down that one , This is back before the days of cell phones and i am way out of range with the one company radio i had for another trucking company . When a local pulls up and says YOU LOST , well yea i am looking for this township house and it was suppose to be off to the left by this big tree and i have not seen a BIG tree . He say no they cut thqat tree down this summer after the big storm took the top out it and you can't see the NEW township house from the road coming south as it is up behind the hill and there is no drive up to it yet just two tracks up thru the field , did you see them , yea i did . Well that is where your going , SOOOOoooo your going to have to BACK all the way back up there as there is no place to turn around . Life was shell we say interesting pulling a bucket . The plus side was that i could fit under a 10.6 underpass with the tarp on . I could fit under a 10.6 with 35 ton of coal on but not 38 ton as if ya left the mine with 38 on when ya got to where it was going you now had 35 .

 

[BigPapa53]

The bridge is at an angle to the road. Acts like a horizontal ramp.

-Scott

 

[oldtanker]

(quoted from post at 09:20:28 04/10/19) Well today we have people driving big trucks that should not be driving them . They do not pay attention to signs , they have no idea of how big they are , They depend on there GPS that is not designed to point out that hey your a big truck and can't go that way because you will not fit. Some times they get bad directions either from there dispatcher or someone that hqas no idea that a big truck can't go that way but they drive a car that way everyday and don't think about if a big truck can't go that way because of a low bridge or a bridge has a low weight limit and they tell the driver WELL THIS IS HOW I COME TO THE PLANT . Back in my early days of beating the pavement i ran into things that a big truck could not go . (now i did not mean i hit things) . One time that sticks in my mind was one load of road salt going to a township over in the hills of Pa. Nobody had ever been there before and my dispatcher gave me this load with a when every ya get there they will come and unload ya . Bev , my dispatcher had directions given to her by the township clerk . Seemed like and easy run . It was a nasty night in Nov. temps in the mid fortys with rain so that meant load had to be traped not a big deal there . Load went out east of Washington Pa. and north of I 70 up some back road in the hills . I get off I 70 and head north about seven miles of hills and curves . Hill on one side and a drop off down to a river/ creek on the other . Dark heavy rain plum nasty . On my bills it said once at the township house to go into the office and call this phone number and CHUCK will come down and unload you when ever you get there . I topped this one hill and went around a curve to the right then backmleft and down the hill and at the bottom was and old WOODEN BRIDGE with a three ton load limit and on the other side of the bridge was the township house . Now what i sur as all get out not taking 78000 lbs across that . No place to turn around . So set the brakes walk across the bridge and call CHUCK . Chuck goes into ORBIT as this is the forth or fifth time the Clerk has had trucks come in this way . No place to turn around and that means a vary long and hard backing job is at hand on a dark night in the rain. , i was NOT suppose to come in off I 70 but in off I 79 . If i had not installed back up lights in my dump trailer i would have had to set there till day light . I backed all the way to the interstate back west bound for 28 miles then north like 20 miles and back thirty miles on more nasty back roads and across many 15 ton bridges . Next one was back to Pa once again the next year. Directions were enter Pa on I 70 and get off the first exit and when you come to the stop sign turn left Follow that road south till you come to the big tree at the end of the fence and turn left , township hall is up on the left. Well the road was not bad for the first five miles then it went to dirt and gravel and i still have not found the big tree on the left at the end of the fence , Saw several fences on the left but no big tree and no township house . I get to a Y and the road really is not one for big trucks and it is like Nah i ain.t going down that one , This is back before the days of cell phones and i am way out of range with the one company radio i had for another trucking company . When a local pulls up and says YOU LOST , well yea i am looking for this township house and it was suppose to be off to the left by this big tree and i have not seen a BIG tree . He say no they cut thqat tree down this summer after the big storm took the top out it and you can't see the NEW township house from the road coming south as it is up behind the hill and there is no drive up to it yet just two tracks up thru the field , did you see them , yea i did . Well that is where your going , SOOOOoooo your going to have to BACK all the way back up there as there is no place to turn around . Life was shell we say interesting pulling a bucket . The plus side was that i could fit under a 10.6 underpass with the tarp on . I could fit under a 10.6 with 35 ton of coal on but not 38 ton as if ya left the mine with 38 on when ya got to where it was going you now had 35 .

Actually they have some very nice GPS units marketed to truck drivers that show where low/weight restricted bridges are.

Rick

 

[dzc3]

Sometimes boils down to counting on the GPS to do all the thinking. Best directions I ever received were " when you come to an old house that used to have a white picket fence make a right" I worked for afterhours for a large refrigerated trucking company, drivers would use GPS to find Farmland Foods Crete Ne. GPS took them from the interstate to a 2 lane highway to a gravel road which became a dirt road, where they either got stuck or tipped over trying to back up. When asked if they ever thought that GPS might be wrong the inevitable answer was "But I can see the Plant from here"

 

[KL in Wi]

Too bad there's nothing on that bridge to indicate a low clearance 11 foot 6 inch bridge!!!! One problem is, now days there's a lot of four wheeler drivers driving 18 wheelers.

 

[D beatty]

Comes down to having common sense and pay attention to what your doing.

 

[4520BW]

There is a scenic road thru the forestry close to me. It has steep hills and tight turns, about twice a year a semi goes up the road and get stuck on the sharp turns.( mostly Swift trucks). They all say GPS took them that way.

 

[dpendzic]

the bridge is at a 45 degree angle to the roadway--the horizontal force jut pushes them over--many years ago it rolled a D8 right off a lowboy.

 

[dpendzic]

Moriches on Long Island,New York stste

 

[dpendzic]

in all the bridge hits i investigated as Director of Bridges for Suffolk County, LI, every driver told me he didn't measure the height of his truck/load--always thought he was lower than the posted height!

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Hitting low bridges with trucks has been going on since there have been trucks. It is far from being exclusively caused by GPS.

If it's happening more often, that's because there are more trucks on the road. It can't help but happen more often. GPS has nothing to do with it, because standard road maps don't have low bridges marked on them either.

99.9% of the bridge strikes occur because the driver either wasn't paying attention, OR they saw the sign and thought they could make it because they figure there's always a few inches of wiggle room beyond what the sign says.

The other 0.1% are caused by terrain making the effective clearance under the bridge much less than by just measuring straight from the road surface to the underside of the bridge. Such as, a viaduct with a steep approach and departure, where a long trailer could bridge across the bottom. There is one locally that's signed at 14'6", which has stopped at least one heavy-haul trailer.

 

[mmfan55]

Even though some of the GPS devices are truck engineered, I still do not trust them and for good reason. "Can't fix stupid ".

 

[fixerupper]

Good time for an an under chassis inspection before they tip it back over. Ive been involved with helping clean up three truck rollovers. Only one of them was the driver’s fault.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Evidently there is a default glitch in the mapping system.

I've been sent down some of those middle of nowhere chases when the GPS couldn't find the address.

Happened once a long time ago, before I had a GPS. Pulled up a map on Mapquest, put in the location, took me to a dirt road that ended, no where near where I was going.

Place I used to work, on several occasions had lost drivers show up in the shipping dock parking lot, looking for an address that was no where near where they were. Sure enough, there was the map, leading them to our dock...

Strange!

 

[Ozlander]

Since the truck won't fit under the bridge, they're going to have to drag it out from under the bridge.

 

[jeffcat]

Just like those thrill shows up on two tires. Opppps!

 

[in-too-deep]

Might as well grab the grease gun.

 

[Adirondack case guy]

The driver CAN"T say that it wasn't properly marked.---Loren

 

[rrc300 u]

I always get a good laugh out of your stories keep em coming. I have an uncle that can tell a tale the same style you have when I was a youngster I couldn't wait to stop at his farm with my dad and hear the latest tales he had to tell.

 

[dpendzic]

The New York State Standard is to post the bridge for one foot less than it actually is.

 

[Hobo,NC]

Durham's infamous 11-foot-8 bridge has got more than its fare share... Durham, NC...

 

[Billy NY]

Where the F train crosses the belt parkway in Brooklyn, 25 years ago, at least once a week a trailer would get the roof peeled back. Key word here: Parkway! All kinds of warnings and alarms on the off ramps of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. Sometimes the trailer would just collapse. I've seen and heard them when I lived over there in Coney Island. All of them must have used the center lane as not far from the bridge is an arch type pedestrian bridge that the left or right lanes do not have enough clearance.

 

[T in NE]

Tail of the dragon?