oops!!!

[gerard]

We just had a nice accident investigation on one of the major interstates in the Syracuse area. Dump truck pulling a lowboy with a full size backhoe on it. The hoe, whichj is SUPPOSED to be lowered and chained, was in the pinned up position. Bridge heights are around 14 foot. Top of his boom, around 14ft 6 inches!! Hit the bridge so hard the front of the tractor raised up, stretching and breaking the binder chains! The bottom of the bridge I beam cut right through the cylinder shaft like a big shear and flattened the whole boom out blowing all the hydraulic seals. Gonna have some major work to get that baby up and running again, not to mention some serious welding on the bridge!!!

 

[MikePA]

I assume the hauler pays for the damage to the bridge?

 

[Von]

Last summer here in Rochester, NY we had a guy do the same thing except it was with a big excavater! Did over a million $ in damage to the bridge. The road is still closed, and they may have to replace the bridge.

 

[gerard]

yep, NYS you damage a bridge due to being overheight and you get the bill. No such thing as "minor" bridge damage!

 

[njrqs]

Oh boy

That is a serious oops indeed.

Remember a furniture truck getting stuck under a bridge here. They let the tyres down and out they came !!!

 

[Bird]

Neil, I saw that happen so many times I lost count in Dallas; the Continental Street underpass in particular. Seems like it used to be a common occurrence, and letting air out of the tires frequently works. Usually those trucks were going pretty slow and didn't hurt that railroad bridge much, but I'll never forget one time when a truck running about 45 mph hit a different railroad bridge in the middle of the night and really tore that truck up. It so happened that the truck driver had been running that route every night, so he knew his truck would fit under that bridge and didn't slow down. What he didn't know was that the new layer of asphalt they had put on that street that day was 2" thick./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I guess his clearance in the past had sure been close.

 

[MChalkley]

gerard - Any pics from the local newpapers online? That would be worth seeing...

 

[Jeff396]

I used to drive truck for Boston to Buffalo Express when I lived in Rochester in '84 and '85. I still remember the series of low overpasses (train if I remember right) that split the city in two. Man, what a pain! One time I went into one of the longer ones at which I carefully stopped to check my clearance. Everything went great until I got near the other end and heard a loud pop//w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Luckily for me not too much damage.

Another incident happened over near Rochester Products on Lexington Ave. I was following an Iveco straight truck who was heading for an overpass that I knew he wouldn't make. I kept hoping he'd realize it but sure enough....BAM!!!! That bridge opened that truck like a can opener. The rear door was now laying down in a horizontal position. I'm betting he was unemployed the next day. You just can't believe the stories you hear when you hang with truckers/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Jeff

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I saw a similar occourance about five or six years ago on I-90 between Seattle and Spokane. After being held up and rerouted onto a frontage road I finally saw the culprit. It was a forklift on the back of a 40 ft flatbed trailer, it was a pretty big one I'm guessing about a 15,000 pound Hyster unit. I stopped for a look and it was pretty mutilated, the mast was bent and laying back onto the cab, the pins on the mast tilt cylinders were sheared off and the flatdeck trailer it was sitting on was sagging pretty bad. Just a real mess which I'm sure ended up being completely scrapped after the undamaged parts were stripped.

 

[Thomas]

Glad there wasn't another car following,and I wonder what the driver was thinking when he hit. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[Thomas]

Have you been thru the Boston tunnel in the past 3 months since the Big Dig in the area..the over bridges,by pass,lanes etc../w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif one got to be on the toes and ready w/ the brakes and gas. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[genelp]

The company I work for has the largest truck repair facility in the U.S. The low underpasses in Chicago has provided our trailer repair shop with lots of work over the years.

Gene

 

[Jeff396]

Never actually drove in Boston though I worked for Boston to Buffalo Express. I was a local driver in Rochester delivering fresh fish (sure stank!!!) I have heard stories of the Boston road system from my wife who works for a company based there.

Jeff

 

[frank_f15]

had the same thing happen around here about a year or so ago.only this time it cost the lady behind the truck her life. seems the truck and hoe were under the stated height for the bridge .seems they pepaved the road and raised the roadbed and did not post the new clearance. ANOTHER ROYAL SNAFU

 

[Anonymous Poster]

A friend of mine bought a refrigater and hauled it in his own pick-up to save money. On the way home with it in the back of the pick-up he came upon a low subway bridge. His wife asked "are you sure that is going to clear?" He slammed the brakes on in panic, which caused the refer to smack forward on the box of the pick-up box. Put a nice dent all the way across the door of the new fridge. AND he had plenty of clearence.

 

[scruffy]

In Bend Oregon, there is a RR overpass that only has a 9 foot (and an inch or two) clearance. That turkey cost me the top 6 to 10 inches on several pairs of whip antennas (for cbs). Never remembered at least half the time, to pull the whips down and clip them. Lord only knows how many trucks, motorhomes, etc bought a chunk of that RR overpass!

 

[kyoders]

I was sitting in the parking lot of Drawbridge Marina in Port Clinton Ohio and got to watch a sail boat dragged out from under the drawbridge. Apprently the guy was impatient and thought he could make it under the bridge without having to wait for it to open. He ended up laying the boat over about 15 degrees when the mast hit, which brought the keel up into the sloping bank at the edge of the river. I don't think he did any damage to the bridge, but I bet it cost him a small fortune in repairs to his boat. Not to mention what it cost to have a salvage boat drag him out in the first place. Is this where the saying "a boat is a hole in the water where you pour money" came from? I guess the saying doesn't account for the intelligence of the owner.

Kevin

 

[Thomas]

Yesterday at work a college student was riding his little m/c and took a spill,he wasn't hurt just some road rash and his paper went everwhere.
Riding a m/c on a back street wasn't so smart w/icy sides of the road..yep live an learn.

 

[Golfgar4]

Sometimes those college students don't have a choice! When I was in school, all I had was my motorcycle to get around. And I went to college in Wisconsin. Let's see, the school year usually goes through the winter /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif. Yup, I rode my bike all winter long /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif! There were times when it looked like I had outrggers on I had my legs stretched so far out to each side for balance /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. But I think the worst part of riding in the winter was coming out of a warm building and sitting down on a cold, hard leather seat /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif. Man, you could really do great doughnuts though /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif!