I’ve often wondered why low bridges and overpasses are built in the US. It’s an accident just waiting to happen. 30 people hurt and 2 dead because some idiot designed the bridge a few inches too low. A lot of semi trucks can’t clear 8 ft 6 in. Whats the big deal in building a bridge at 9 ft? The article says there is a taller bridge at the airport for buses and trucks.
Why not make all bridges safe for all traffic? People’s lives are at stake and they are depending on a traffic sign to avoid a tragedy? This happens far too often. I’ve seen other reports of trucks stuck under a low bridge. Usually no one dies. They let the air out of the tires and they can wench the truck out. This is just so dumb to build low bridges in the first place.
Because many bridges and overpasses predate tall vehicles, or even motor vehicles period? I’m not sure where the mystery here lies.
Like “One-Way, Do Not Enter” signs? Or the myriad other signs one encounters on the roadways? Again, I’m not sure where the mystery lies. Clearly this is egregious driver error. Tragic, but between the driver and the bridge, I’m blaming the driver.
You don’t expect low bridges like that on a fairly new looking interstate. Usually low bridges are on state highways or on city streets. They are old and predate modern semi trucks. We have a few old bridges in Arkansas that occasionally get a semi stuck under them. They have that route marked “Not for trucks” but drivers miss the signs. Eventually the bridge will wear out and get replaced. Until then it’s a hazard.
The driver is at fault. It just bugs me that an unnecessary road hazard was created in the first place. Especially at an airport which generates a lot of traffic.
There are a few of those around Boston. There are several routes around here that don’t allow trucks. (I’m not entirely sure, but I think they may be under the legal jurisdiction of the parks commission; they’re mostly park-like areas or along the rivers.) The ones along the banks of the Charles have hanging signs in advance of the low bridges. I don’t know all the history, but they certainly could have been built at a time when vehicles were much shorter than they are now.
In the article linked in the OP, you can see that the bus practically crashed into the sign warning the driver to turn. I see lights on it. Those may be triggered by a height sensor (breaking a light beam, or something similar) up the road a bit. I’ve seen that kind of setup, too.
The parkways in New York are prohibited to large trucks, and one way Robert Moses made sure that would be enforced was that he deliberately designed the overpasses so that trucks wouldn’t fit under them.
That does look like kind of a screwy setup. The bridge where the driver hit has signs warning vehicles over 8’6" to turn left (where it looks like they have to go through the parking garage), and the parking garage warns vehicles over 11’ to turn left.
But in those links there are lots of signs warning tall vehicles. And if there’s no place to go, it’s still better to stop than to just drive into it.
Actually, Robert Moses’s goal was to keep buses (of brown people) from using the parkways to reach his precious beaches and parks. Giiiiiant racist, Robert Moses. The rule is “No commercial vehicles” not, “no trucks.”
They have them on the Hutchinson River Parkway in NYC. Trucks come off the Whitestone Bridge and have to be reminded to exit before the first of the Robert Moses style bridges (which look nice – stone arches).
There have been a couple of cases of trucks getting onto the Hutch these days. I suspect its due to GPS; a truck driver will be told to take it without any notification of the clearance.
Actually it looks more like a parking deck than a bridge. Building parking garages high enough for trucks and buses would be astronomically expensive. Up hear we had a guy Darwin himself when he ignored telltales and low clearance signs and drove his U-haul into the Mall of America parking gargage.
I hate driving to Miami airport, for a variety of reasons. It’s probably been a decade since I’ve driven myself there, so it may have changed since then. But I remember it being rather confusing. And large.
Also…while I was down in Miami today, I had ***nothing ***to do with this accident. And none of you can prove otherwise!
-D/a
Bus and truck drivers are professionals, theoretically with more training than the average driver, yet they still ignore or miss warning signs all the time.
We had a tragic bus crashhere in Atlanta a while back that killed 7 college kids. Why? because idiot professional driver drove up an exit ramp that ended at a “T” intersection at the top of the ramp, but kept on going.
While the DOT noted that the signage was inadequate, I submit that tens of thousands of vehicles pass that exit daily, and none of them drive off the damn cliff.
Slowing down and actually paying attention would cure most ills, IMHO.