A near empty school bus shouldnt have sent that bridge to the bottom even with some equipment on board ,that bridge was obviously near collapse anyway,no wonder they didnt charge the driver.
Now maybe this bus was of a particularly heavy construction, but I have heard a quoted weight(empty presumed ) of 11 tons for a 66 passenger bus and the bridge should have had a little safety factor built in.
I checked on bluebird buses,they can weigh up to 16.5 tons empty,but I assume that means a bus with a heavy diesel engine,Allison automatic transmission,special equipment and 72 passenger.If thats the case a bus like that would at least require a 5% percent overload sticker(2 axles) with a typical student load perhaps of 6 tons(never seen an overload sticker on a schoolbus) so I postulate this bridge was near collapse and should have been closed anyway.
Bad bridges are an accident waiting to happen,remember the “Silver Bridge” at “Point Pleasant” WVA ?
The Silver Bridge was a fracture critical design which meant that if one element fails, the entire bridge comes down. Many of the bridges built in the 60’s and earlier were of this same design, as was the I 35 bridge. There was an invisible casting fracture on one of the many support hooks on the bridge that finally failed that led to the whole bridge coming down. No redundancy at all and relies on aggressive inspection and on-going repair. So how do you x-ray all of the bridge components for these types of fractures? You really don’t. Its bad design which is why these bridges simply need to be replaced, pronto. I suspect the next generation of bridges will be failing due to sub-standard Chinese steel and fasteners. We just aren’t there yet.
Happy New Year. As the old yaw goes, don’t tell me you don’t have the money. Do your job.
@kmccune, the school bus in question was not a typical bare bones bus. It was an activity bus more closely related to what is used for touring musicians and sight seeing groups. I think the weight is more along the line of 40k pounds or so; empty.
I have no idea how much a bunch of tubas, trombones, and French horns would weigh.
It was similar to this.
There seemed to be 3 theories for the bridge collapse, the gussett plates were only 1/2 the thickness they should have been, bearings that allowed for thermal expansion and contraction were frozen, and increases in the weight of the bridge above design threshold.
Reminds me of a story from CAD classes. The teacher told a story of a project where support plates layer was turned off, luckily the mistake was caught before the project was built.
When I was hired as a commercial driver in May 1979 I had an Oregon driver license with motorcycle endorsement. I first had to pass a DOT physical. I successfully peed in a cup, responded when the nurse called my name at a distance of 30 feet (hearing OK), read an eye chart, and had a pulse. I had studied and aced my written CDL test at DMV. I had a copy of my physical so they did not check my pulse. I was then issued a shiny new CDL authorizing me to commercially drive anything from a Vespa scooter to a tractor with double trailers up to 80,000 pounds GVW (I knew that was 40 tons but was not asked)! Oversize loads and triple trailers would have required further testing/certification. I started driving a 1976 Pinto station wagon hauling interoffice mail between two title companies, mortgage companies, and banks. On a busy day I was hauling up to 20 pounds of “freight”. In the afternoon/evening and Saturdays I drove a Ford E150 van with maybe 400 pounds of freight. I did have to complete a company requirement of 16 hours defensive driving/safety classroom instruction at their convenience.
Did this Bus have a “pony” axle ? Sometimes to up the allowed gross weight , you have to start adding axles ,40K is very close to the allowed max gross weight for a so called "single axle " truck.
I have to slow down and check my reading comprehension I guess. I guess I usually read what I want to see. When you said “peed in a cup”, I read it as “passed a C.U.P.” and couldn’t figure out what a CUP was. Oh boy. Old age is coming.
I guess I really don’t know except there are some very good drivers and some bad ones and probably not related to the testing methods. My BIL drove for many years and self taught and taught by his BIL. My nephew decided to follow in his foot steps but took a professional driving course. My BIL poo pooed the course but I’m sure it had some benefit to him for the couple thousand it cost. But he had the benefit then of the course and my BIL’s many years of practical experience with both good and bad habits. I think he is a pretty good driver because of it and I applaud him for standing up to my BIL for some professional help. Of course I understand the instructors probably weren’t much better than my BIL, but he got his ticket punched anyway. Still don’t think its much of a life anymore and he should have been an engineer instead.
@kmccune, I can’t answer your question about the pony axle as I simply do not know on that particular bus. I only know that it was a large touring type bus that the school district had only owned a short time and was purchased new after the passage of a bond issue.
In the small city near where I live there is a railroad underpass and the height on that one has been 11’6" for as long as I can remember.
I can’t even remember the number of CDL carrying drivers who have opened the tops of their trucks up like a tuna can on that underpass even though it is well marked and has flashing lights.
The city went in a few years ago and painted both sides (4 lane road) with large killer eyes and shark’s teeth (all done up in black, yellow, and white) so it would appear to a trucker that they’re driving into a shark’s mouth.
It’s helped but I think there has still been a couple of incidents there.
So was this bus one of those huge Grummans or whoever makes them now , much more comfortable then a school bus,yep I have seen a lot of these busses(buses ?)(buss’s ?) with pony axles .
The Silver Bridge was a fracture critical design which meant that if one element fails, the entire bridge comes down. Many of the bridges built in the 60's and earlier were of this same design, as was the I 35 bridge.
Thank God the I-93 bridge in MA over the Merrimack river wasn’t built that way. About 10 years ago a few of the cross supports fell into the river. The idiot MA highway spokesman made a public statement…“There’s nothing to be concerned about…very few boaters travel under that bridge.” Even after the backlash of that extremely stupid statement he refused to take it back.
LOL, I guess he must have figured that if the Merrimack River bridge didn’t get ya the Big Dig tunnels would! 
Apparently, Indiana isn’t the only state where some holders of CDLs either don’t know the height of their vehicle, or can’t read the warning signs, or don’t believe what is printed on those signs. This video from North Carolina is…amazing…
There’s a bridge in Boston that peels a truck or two every year.
Yeah we’ve got a lower railroad bridge here too that truckers seem to not notice the warning signs. I think GPS routing has not helped the poor guys but now the flashing signs seems to have gotten some attention.
I liked the folks that just kept on going if they made it all the way through, and the collapsible trailers. The camper owner might be surprised when the turn on the AC though at the camp ground.
Regarding the 11’6" underpass here that I mentioned previously as having ripped the tops out of dozens of trucks over the years my oldest son and I foresaw one of those incidents. We were at a gas station filling up for a trip to OK City and saw a box van go by with 3 young employees in the front seat. This was a delivery van for a well known in OK furniture company.
We were about a mile away from that underpass and my son and I made comments to each other about whether or not they would notice the warning signs and flashing lights since they were on the road headed to that underpass.
After we got gas we headed that way and sure enough, the van was sitting there with the top peeled halfway back and the local police already on scene.
We made another stop or two before heading of town and about 20 miles south passed them on the highway; headed back to OKC with a peeled open truck.
I would strongly imagine that was an uncomfortable 80 mile drive back with the thought of looming and immediate unemployment hanging around.
There's a bridge in Boston that peels a truck or two every year.
That has to be the one on Storrow drive. I was driving in to Boston one day when it happened. I was about 15 miles out and traffic came to a halt. The next exit I turned around and went home.
The destroyed bridge is on South Gospel St. in Paoli. I suspect it was once the main highway through town, but, at some point, the main road was replaced by the new highway 37 road and bridge one block west of the town square. While it will be inconvenient to go around a block west, it’s not an insurmountable problem. Chances are, most traffic goes that way anyway.
You can look up 210 S Gospel, Paoli IN, on Google maps. For some reason I can’t get it to link.
I wonder if for the problem bridges it would work to hang (with chain) some lengths of orange PVC piping over the road at the same height as the bridge say, 1/2 mile before the bridge, with signs. Whacking those might get the truckers to realize they’d screwed up and turn around.
Mike, I don’t remember which one it is. Every time a trucker peels his rig open the news says another one has been wrecked, but not being a trucker I don’t pay attention to the location. I’m saying “bridge”, but it’s actually an overpass, which as everyone knows is a bridge over a road instead of water (I thought I’d mention it just in case this might be a regional term).
I wonder if for the problem bridges it would work to hang (with chain) some lengths of orange PVC piping over the road at the same height as the bridge say, 1/2 mile before the bridge, with signs. Whacking those might get the truckers to realize they'd screwed up and turn around.
There’s this bridge in Liverpool NY that has so many warning signs and Lasers to detect a high truck and flashing lights and horns…and everyone once in a while it still gets hit.
The overpass in the video is from Duram, NC. Can’t read the street name though.