Thursday morning a garbage truck hit a low bridge near Hudson Lake, In causing the line closure.
http://heraldargus.com/articles/2013/06/21/news/local/doc51c3ae649a410935521902.txt
Coordinates from Google maps: 41.711743 -86.553045
E Bell Ave & E lake Park Ave, Hudson Lake, In 46552
Rgsd IGN
41.711743, -86.553045
Another newby truck pilot unfamiliar with the territory. Either that or, “I go this way all the time in my pickup…”
There’s a somewhat similar situation on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville, TN. Trucks headed toward downtown see what appears to be barely adequate clearance stenciled on the bottom of a REALLY HEAVY deck girder span with a railroad on top. What they don’t see is that the clearance was measured at the point where the grade goes from level to uphill. Usually catches the top of the box about 10 feet aft of the fifth wheel…
The difference is that nothing short of an Abrams tank is going to move the bridge over Murfreesboro Road. And the tank would probably have to expend a HEAT round to do it.
Chuck (ex Nashville resident)
No this is a case of familiarity breeds lack of respect. This was a garbage truck on a regular route with the regular driver wiith a new truck(or at least it was). The pictures I saw in one article showed the bridge height sign and a well trimmed area around the sign. Look at the google maps location and the street view and you will see. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt. And they were able to stop the train before it got there. Rgds IGN
Once more into the stupid zone!
(Zugs: Let’s do the knee jerk reaction, lets have Positive Truck Control and erect orange diamond stupid zone signs all over town and especially at truck terminals and truck stops)
Good one…
Positive truck control would probably save more lives than positive train control.
If that is way it was measured then the measuring agency should be liable. I would think that a measurement would be made for a 53’ trailer with its tandems all the way to the rear & and at all points continuing . The measurement could be made using a 53’ flat bed trailer.
Doesn’t matter where the measurement is made so much as that is was marked for whatever height and truckers should be aware. All marked underpasses are pretty well known but it is up to the truck driver to be certain of the how, what, where, and whatever of the underpass and his vehicle (both tractor and trailers).
I want to know how much sleep the truck driver had the night before.
And how far ahead were the bridge warning signs? Maybe if there were flashing lights?
This was not a truck trailer combination. Just a straight truck with 2 or 3 axles. 11’3" is real obvious to anyone with a CDL. The only time you hit that is if you think you have a shorter truck. As I said it was marked. Rgds IGN
Was the bridge painted dark? Perhaps some reflectors are in order? Can anyone find a Google map, so we can see the angle of approach to the bridge? It’s quite possible that the driver is overweight and has sleep issues, so he couldn’t see the bridge because of the trees.
Do garbage truck drivers secretly want to hit railroad bridges?
Seriously, if a bridge has 11’-3" clearance, why can’t the highway or street department build some sort of tell-tale apparatus accross the road a couple hundred yards before the bridge? When the truck hits the tell-tale bar accrosss the road, it would make a big, grinding, crunch sound, and the driver would hit the brakes to see what happened. It might still tear up a truck, but it would save a lot of wear and tear on America’s bridges.
We have an interstate bridge here that has been hit 3 times- once was a hit & run! Yet the parking ramps downtown all have a tell-tale bar hanging down in front of the entries and have not been hit.
Zugman : If you look at my original post I gave the location. Go to google maps street view and you will see both sided of the bridge are marked. Murphy Siding : This is a residential backwater street. I suspect the only trucks using it on a weekly basis are the offending garbage truck and UPS delivery trucks. Rgds IGN
Are you referring to the bridge that carries the north end of Deadwood Avenue over I-90?
I remember that bridge having signage, and an IR clearance detector that set off a bunch of flashing lights - and drivers with high boxes STILL hit it! Anyone not sleepwalking or brain dead could have taken the off ramp, and then returned to the freeway via the on ramp right in front of the stop sign at the top of the ramp.
Maybe what’s needed is a heavy single girder with a REALLY WIDE bottom flange, just short of the bridge - to shave things down to the point where they’ll clear.
Funny, I don’t remember EVER hearing about a railroad car that was on the rails hitting a bridge, either an underpass or the inside of a truss bridge. Maybe it’s because the railroads actually check their cars and loads for clearance…
Chuck (ex Rapid City resident)
Chuck- right state, wrong end. I graduated from high school in Rapid City, so I know the bridge you’re talking about. The bridge here (Sioux Falls) that keeps getting hit is on I-90, just west of the Big Sioux River.
I’m guessing you were stationed at Ellsworth?
Oh I can think of a Few times in the late 80’s when Double stacks where new that a Dispatcher Screwed up and sent a Set of Stacks down the wrong set of tracks into a Bridge. Then when the High Cubes came out the same things Happened for a bit.
It would be nice if that were the case - high car and wide car screw ups do occur on the railroads. Nowhere with near the frequency that trucks strike railroad bridges, but high railroad shipment have struck a number of things - bridges - tunnels - other overhead structures as well as things alongside the tracks. In each case it was man failure somewhere along the line - Clearance Bureau - Yard Clerk - Yardmaster - Switch Crew - Road Crew - Train Dispatcher - Chief Dispatcher. Each has a hand in the handling of clearance implicated shipments and mistakes are made. The mistakes are also disciplined.
Some years back I showed a picture of a double stack that had hit a bridge after the company I was driving for had been involved in two in one week to the company safety manager. I pointed out that we(the company) weren’t the only ones having these problems. At least it cheered up his mood a little. It is extremely embarrassing when it happens at best. Most of the time it just wrecks the trailer. Sometimes the cargo. This was somewhat worse case as the bridge was damaged. With luck South Shore should get enough money out of the company’s insurance to pay for the repairs. If the insurance company is smart they’ll pay without a lot of fuss. Thx IGN
PS yes trains do occasionally hit and damage bridges. When double stacks were first being interlined thru Chicago I remember reading about a couple of incidents. Mostly road bridges got hit. I think it was on BRC the dispatcher was not told about the overheight cars and the railroad coordinating the move did not realize that the originating terminal had used double stacks. Just about everything that could go wrong did and the train crew only thought they had a broken drawbar. They replaced the drawbar and hit the bridge again! Rgds IGN
For a while after double stacks were handled on UP’s ex-C&NW main west of Chicago only one track had enough vertical clearance under the BRC bridge at Kenton Ave. to clear them. Needless to say one day the dispatcher sent a double-stack train down one of the OTHER tracks…
A similar situation and event occurred under the 18th Street bridge a few years back where BN/BNSF connects with CR/NS. About three or four containers were filleted after a stack train was sent down the wrong connecting track.