In regards to the furniture company I mentioned in my last post in which the 3 occupants blindly peeled their truck open, I think the hiring standards of that furniture company may not be very high. I’ve seen a few other wrecked trucks of theirs in the past and one happened not too far from where I live.
There’s a T-intersection on the highway and there are no obstructions anywhere. It’s wide open in every direction. As one approaches the highway that crosses the vertical part of the T there are several warning signs posted about a stop sign at the intersection. There is also a quarter mile of very rough, staggered rumble strips to alert someone of the stop sign.
A few years ago some driver must not have even slowed down for the stop sign. It had been raining for several days and the box van was buried to the axles in mud after going sideways.
The truck was a 100 yards past the intersection and about 30 feet from the treeline where it dropped off into a creek.
No doubt another driver who just went on home because he knew he was going to get the axe.
We have a combo overpass bridge near here that would get the unwary occasionally ,the bad thing about this particular bridge was that due to road work underneath ,the clearance shrunk ,every time I go underneath that thing ,I ease up to it to make sure my truck will fit.
One Guy I knew hung a dumptruck under a bridge that was probably 18 feet or higher (the bed had raised on the truck - you can bet he had a rude awakening.And the Guys used to tear utility lines down regularly , when spreading stone with the truck.(Just like being in the woods , you have to look up or you will get in trouble . )
I live in this town and it is a historic bridge. There is usually nothing but residential traffic on it as the highway is now routed around to the west. The city claims the bridge will be out for at least a year, partly the cost to replace with a similar iron bridge and partly the fact that it is not a high traffic area.
For what it is worth the woman was recently old order amish. She only left the community a year ago so she did not have the benefit of a good high school math education. But it is even crazier that she could get a CDL with only a year of driving experience
I’m sorry but building a replica of an old bridge in 2016 makes no sense to me at all. Instead of wasting money building another iron bridge, why not build one to current standards? Who knows maybe in 100 years it would become historic. AI’m not against preserving old things, but we just shouldn’t waste a lot of public money on it as well as risk public safety.
For years I drove across a small, old concrete two lane arched bridge every day to work. When they finally replaced it, I thought, “Good, they’ll fix the way the arches blocked the view of oncoming traffic for an adjacent intersection.” They tore out the roadbed and replaced it with a free-standing, low-profile prestressed concrete type, BUT left the old arches there because of “historical significance.”
Bing: I also think GPS is a factor. There are “trucker” programs for higher end GPSs that include in-route height, weight, and length restrictions. They are not available for a $29.95 Chinese product! My two examples had maximum length 48 foot trailers. The very tight “obstructions” are located on a 2 lane county road (one North and one South). They are underpasses for railroad tracks. I can only describe them as a low clearance (12’3") very short tunnel with an extremely tight “S” curve. The sides are many (8+) feet thick concrete. They are very well marked with warning signs ( 1 mile, 1/4 mile and lighted warning on the bridge. A couple of years ago a 60 year old Walmart driver going between a store West of my town to another store East of my town ended up crashing into the South bridge. His excuse was following his GPS. A basic GPS gives the shortest route. Of course he passed all the warnings. If his tractor trailer had somehow had vertical clearance it would never have made lateral clearance. My other example was a situation I actually witnessed. A similar tractor trailer approaching the North bridge had been stopped by a Sheriff’s Deputy before crashing. They were trying to find a way to turn the idiot around. No doubt another GPS shortest route.
In spite of the ads from oil field companies looking for drivers with experience, drug testing required, etc, they sure seem to wind up with a lot of CDL loose cannons.
Right now the county is rebuilding a bridge just north of me due to an oil field guy wheeling 60k pounds of tanker over a 15 ton bridge.
Some years ago 2 oil field tanker drivers were killed at 3 in the morning near here when both of them crossed the center line simultaneously and hit head on at a combined speed of 120+.
Strangely enough, both of them worked for the same company.
A local MAC tool vendor had his box van ripped wide open one dark, foggy, winter night when he came over a small rise. He never even knew what happened although thankfully he walked out of it with just a few scratches.
The tanker driver had misjudged his right turn onto a dirt road and was backing the trailer up into the highway to take another stab at it. Black trailer, no lights at all, and the tanker caught the tool truck right in the middle of the windshield; opening it up like a can of tuna. The MAC guy was out there a good part of the night picking up all kinds of tools which went flying in every direction.
In NY state every bridge clerance has to be marked one foot lower than its actual clearance. There are rare exceptions that have to be marked Actual clearance in black letters on yellow,signs.
On route 63 going southeast from Pavillion NY is an underpass at the bottom of a long hill, It is marked 12’ 10" and the downhill lane is constantly streaker with rubber from out of state truckers trying to stop their 13’ 6" high rigs even though they have 4" clearance.