I95 near me had northbound lanes closed for a week after a truck hit an overpass. That was several years ago, two hour backup just to exit.
I hate to say this after over 40 some years of trucking but truck drivers are not what they used to be.
Neither are we. LOL
Heavy equipment being trailered on I-5 hit an important overpass near Centralia Wa a few years ago, They demolished the overpass and built a brand new one replacing one from the 1950’s.
That is true.
But seriously I have seen many changes in the trucking industry over the years when I first started back in the early 60’s most of the changes were for the good when the deregulation came about it seemed that there were more regulation than ever and it seemed that every year since then things have been going down hill to what we have today.
Here’s a recent one in my neck of the woods:
Probably ex truck drivers not long afterwards…
Like I said before the the trucking industry has undergone a lot of changes over the years. That being said I don’t under stand why the driver was cited it used to be heavy and over size loads had to have a permit before they could move and also had to have an escort service every mile of the way the escort was responsible for the routing and getting whatever permits that were required also getting the local police to block roads if needed if any thing went wrong it was the escort that took the blame not the truck driver.
Talking about over size loads about 20’yrs ago I saw that was funny to me but not for the people involved y’all have seen houses being moved well on a two lane state road one was being moved it took up the whole road a few tires [ I don’t know many ] blew out needless to say it caused quite mess trying to get a crew to it to get the tires fixed.
This happened a few days ago
Dump Truck In Georgia Crashed Into Bridge And Swept It Six Feet (jalopnik.com)
Well I guess we can thank all the truck drivers for getting all the outdated bridges replaced.
Also a few boats I have heard about over the years.
We had a driver that couldn’t pull on to an elevated truck scale today. It’s about 18” off the ground with a pretty gently sloping ramp. Hell, I’ve pulled trucks on it 100’s of times and I’m no truck driver! Well, he eventually did get on it, after he got on there sideways, tried to back down the ramp and tore part of his bumper off, then circled the building so that he could line up straight with it. Then he started to complain that it was a “ridiculous” setup as the next driver took the scale without issue. Just like most of them do every day, multiple times. Makes you think twice when you’re in the lane next to that 80k lbs…could be that guy is driving!
That is one good example of what I meant when I said truck drivers are not what they used to be and it does make you wonder what might happen when you are on the same roads as they are.
I’ve actually had to back on the dock for OTR drivers, more than once. You get tired of watching them try to back up and keep turning the wrong direction trying to correct. Then you load the truck and think “Oh yeah…they’ve got to haul this 10 hours away”…. Scary.
That is nothing new for OTR drivers I have seen that for years some people can’t seem to get idea of how to back a trailer but in the old days the driver would admit that he could not back a trailer up and ask for help.