21 Replies to “This Is Awkward”

  1. Theres an old – true story – of something similar happening somewhere. The engineers and experts were brought in and they were all set to disassembled the truck, etc. When an old time suggested… “Why don’t ya let the air out of the tires…”

  2. You’d think somebody would realize that the distance from pavement to underpass is not the same as “clearance”.

  3. Clearance height is posted on every underpass. Virgin Truck Drivers are often distracted or day dreaming.We all learn from experience and experience comes from mistakes.

  5. Wow, is that not the quintessential Canadian commentary? “Soooo…somebody needs ta look inta that. ‘Cause…that’s not good.”

  6. Heh. You should have seen of the lulus we had here in Edmonchuk before they got rid of the 9th street “rat hole”. We still get some every year at the High Level south bound(high being height above the North Sask,not clearance).There is an escape route off of 109th SB,but the stupid place the city put the signs allows the trucker maybe 300m to get off,and then only if they see it with all the signs around it.In fact,it has happened so often,that when it does,it is usually just reported in the traffic updates as “semi and High Level arguement,use alternate routes”. Gotta love it.

  8. the bear…..probably a rounding error going from ISA to Turdough’s metric crap.What’s a few inches between friends? Could have been worse.Just think what could have happened if it occurred while converting an airplane’s fuel load so that it only had half of what it should? Oh wait.

  10. He didn’t get stuck. He was delivering a bridge and ran out of gas. 🙂

  11. in Bramton Onartio there are 2 bridges about 1 block apart under the same RR track that have over the years peeled about 7 trucks that I’m aware of. Me thinks they did take corrective some years ago. But one has to wonder why when they re-paved these roads some brite-lite didn’t consider changing the clearance signs?

  13. size of tires makes a difference too… i can get my truck and trailers under that bridge, but if i were to hook up my coworkers truck to my trailers and try it, I’d be scraping concrete too. Knock on wood it never happens to me, but it’s just a matter of paying attention and researching your route better if you’re new to a city… I almost got caught on the hi level in Edmonton when i was a rookie but stopped, , had to back all the way up that off/exit ramp.

  14. Well Hmm. I started doing some research into how “clearance” is measured for bridges, and except in the odd case of New York State (measured from the curb to a low point not above the travel lane), it seems common in the US states and Canadian provinces to measure from the travelway of the road surface directly up to the lowest point of the bridge above that lane, and declare that measurement to be the clearance, with perhaps a bit of fudge on top.
    In the UK, for a bridge such as a rail overpass where the road has been excavated under the bridge, the rule is that you assume a straight line “chord”, with both ends on the road surface, of 40 feet in length (representing axle-to-axle length of a heavy-goods vehicle). You then measure from this chord up to the lowest point of the lowest rivet on the bridge above, and that is the legal clearance. If you mount your bridges above obvious large dips in the road, this is going to give you a clearance measure that is significantly smaller than the measure from the road surface directly under the bridge.
    As a layperson it seems reasonable to me that if the authorities claim that the clearance is 3.8M, and I know that my truck and trailer are less than 3.8M when measured on a flat surface, then the truck and trailer should be expected to fit under the bridge. This would indeed be the case in the UK barring thick ice on the road or a frost heave, but would apparently not be the case in North America, where large vehicles are expected to bend along their length to correspond to topography of the roads they are traveling on.
    In official reports on “how do we stop trucks running into this bridge all the time”, it seems to be a frequent suggested solution that they get rid of the heaves and bumps and make the pavement flat so that the measurement can be trusted for real vehicles. It is also suggested that “over clearance” warning flashers be installed, just like the one this bridge used to have, which was removed.

  15. $hitcongo is notorious for low bridges (unmarked even) once you leave interstate/expressways. I knew a fella that had long rods/whips he attached to his mirrows like CB antennas at the city limits. They slightly exceeded the height of his trailor…like whiskers. He said he never hit/got caught but had to back out with Police assistance sometimes an entire block….he said as soon as the cops appeared and cleared the street it was easier to just spin it around…..not possible if there is a dividing island (frequent there).

  17. looks a bit like an ice buildup under the bridge. have seen this before. trucks have a couple of inches clearance during warm weather, then the frost lifts the pavement and you add some ice, well, a bridge you once could get under is now too low.

  18. Winnipeg Street in Regina is well marked. I use to haul over sized loads and the over height always bothered me more than over width. Never hit anything, though.

  19. I saw a self-loading logging truck do that to a rail overpass near Woss (Northern Vancouver Island). He didn’t craddle his loading boom properly and went from 80kph to zero in 9 inches of girder deformation. He walked away with bruised ribs from his seat belt and luckily wasn’t loaded with poles otherwise he would have been hamburger.

  20. This location is notorious, and every time a truck hits the bridge it’s duly noted by the armchair-accident-investigators that it’s ultimately “the driver’s fault”. This summary determination of cause is often touted by City officials who are responsible for the driving environment.
    The cause (fault) of any accident is multi-factorial, and the equipment operator (driver, pilot etc) is only one factor, albeit an important factor. The accident statistics for the Winnipeg Street RR overpass obviously reveal an environmental factor, and it’s time for the City to accept some of the responsibilty.
    Alternatively we could continue to enjoy dumping on competent drivers who unfortunately got sucked-in by expecting competent City officials to adhere to some kind of standard for the environment.
    http://www.leaderpost.com/news/regina/Photo+gallery+Crashing+into+Winnipeg+Street+underpass/1482873/story.html
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2013/03/07/sk-regina-over-pass-1302.html?autoplay=true

  21. No doubt environmental factors play a part. But consider Calgary’s Centre Street Bridge. There are multiple warning systems in place, which have cut the accident rate in half for big trucks — from 40 per year to 20.
    There are still 20 accidents a year from truck drivers ignoring blaring sirens, flashing lights, and low-hanging warning obstacles. It’s hard to argue that the blame shouldn’t go squarely onto the truck drivers, in this case.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2012/12/18/calgary-centre-street-closed.html

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