Driving video where the truck is ripped to shreds: What was this driver thinking?

It’s incredible that there are no signs restricting trucks from usage of the road! For one thing the bridge itself should have a huge sign on it that can be read from a considerable distance, and there should be a stop sign within that reading distance on the approach to the bridge.

Totally agree with Stan.

The surveillance camera is high quality and is recording at a fast rate. They must have many accidents at that spot.
I like how quickly the following cars turned around and got out of there. No hesitation.

@LuckyGuy: I thought the same thing about the followers. They seemed to be saying “No use just sitting here! Let’s get outta Dodge!”

I’m sure there are signs restricting truck traffic. Maybe they are not visible in the clip, but there have to be, probably 500 – 1000’ prior.

All of that said, the driver is an idiot. He should have situational awareness of the height of his truck and if he was driving with his eyes open, he should have seen the bridge height even without a sign.

And he didn’t miss it by an inch – he was at least a foot or more overheight.

What are the chances he is still working for that trucking company?

It is easy for folks who don’t drive for a living to fault the truck driver, but it is far too simple to forget both that you’re driving something tall if you are unaccustomed to it as well as the possibility that the hole ahead of you might only be 10 feet high. The very frequency of accidents is sliding liability ever more ominously onto the shoulders of the state, and it’s merely a matter of time til some gruesome fatality and the huge resulting lawsuit compel the state to undertake a remedy.

I think the pole on the right side of the camera frame has signs on it with height.

Yes and just compare the size and placement of that little sign to the HUGE orange “grooved pavement” sign right behind it and ask yourself “now which of the 2 is the driver likely to notice?”

The driver was probably thinking that whoever built the road planned for tall trucks.

He was thinking nothing, because he is a lorry driver.
And by nothing, I mean the last prostitute he murdered with his axe.

It’s more than that. How many heavily traveled roadways can you think of that have an underpass with a 10 foot clearance? The situation is just BEGGING for a lawsuit, and some slick lawyer is going to “clean up”.

@stanleybmanly – in Boston, more than you think. There are many bridges – mostly railroad – that were built 100+ years ago, that presumably are grandfathered in from legal liability.

You know it’s been so long that I’d actually forgotten about the peculiarities involving New England roads. That is the one place that would have clearance for horse drawn carriages and actually legally guard against improvements. I wonder if they can avoid redress from those who approach such matters through Federal agencies?

The clearance sign should have been twice it’s size one where it was and the other right on the over pass it self,the overpasses up here do that.
And even that some times isn’t enough, I have seen over height loads hit overpasses and do a lot of damage to the load and the bridge it self.
A couple of years ago an over height load brought traffic to a standstill on this one highway, the driver was from out of Province and was hauling and over height load, and came up against a low over pass, and knew he wouldn’t clear so stopped, he couldn’t back out of there because traffic had blocked him in,the cops brought the media in because they were very impressed this guy did that,and praised him for it then worked at getting traffic cleared so he could get out of there.
Now I want to bring it to everyones attention his DISPATCH insisted he take that highway because it was the shortage route to his destination,don’t you think an idiot sitting behind a desk telling truckers where to go should know if the damn route is safe and legal for trucks???
The public always wants to blame drivers but sometimes there is more to it.
NOW back to your question if that underpass has claimed a few trucks in the past, don’t you think it should deserve a clearance sign a bit bigger than the tiny one that was in the video??
That could have been easily missed by any driver not familiar with that road???
How do any of us not know that guys dispatcher sent him down that road,we don’t and for what he was thinking dispatch sent me this way it must be ok.

Haha, serial killer with shit for brains, typical.

That traffic signal with the green arrow. Is it rigged to turn red at the approach of a tall truck? If not, then why not?

@stanleybmanly You just reminded me. I recall seeing a roadway in Connecticut that had optical sensors set at the height of the bridge about ¼ mile away. If something broke the beam a red traffic light would turn on.
I wonder if kids abused it so much the system was disabled.

As often as it happens at that underpass, it is astonishing to me they don’t consider lowering the road surface to 14 feet. Trailer and van truck tops are really pretty flimsy and shear away easily. If a trailer just got the very top sheared off, I wouldn’t be too surprised a driver (who obviously would have to have recto cranial insertion) might not notice until about halfway through and just power the rest of the way through.

I think I saw an overpass warning sign recently that had something, I don’t quite remember what it was, Tennis balls are in my head but I know that’s not what it was, maybe chains, suspended from a pole over the road with a sign that said something like, “If this touches your car you will not clear the upcoming overpass.” I would think that if a truck heard a noise on his car, maybe he would pay attention.

I have seen that done with chains for parkades @Judi if your vehicle hits the chains it won’t fit in the parkade type thing but have never seen it for an over pass that I can remember.

I think I saw it when we were traveling through Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota last week. I just can’t remember where. There were lots of tunnels, and we were in a big ass motorhome so we were paying attention.

It’s not a bad idea as long as they are far enough away from whatever you have to clear that if they hit you have enough time to react and not enter, but if they are right at the entrance and you’re going highway speeds what good is that?

How many people are good at measuring things or visualizing numbers? I know @LuckyGuy and I can, but I also know my wife and my next-door neighbor cannot. While it may be simple to some people, it’s dark magick to others.

Some people seem to have no idea how big their vehicles actually are. Whether it be the person who drives with two wheels on the yellow line out of fear of hitting the curb or the person who drives a box truck into an overpass because they think all cars are the same height, it’s pretty obvious that some people just can’t do the mental imagery thing very well.

What were they thinking? Probably that they had driven under that bridge before and never hit it, so no need to worry.