oops!!!

Jeff396 · Feb 28, 2002

When I lived in Rochester, NY I was floored to see that they had the Motorcycle cops handle the funeral processions year round. In the winter they just put training wheels on them so they could remain upright. Sure wouldn't want to draw that duty!

Jeff

Bird · Feb 28, 2002

Jeff, in '72 I visited the Harley-Davidson headquarters (in Milwaukee at that time), and while I was there, talked to a Milwaukee motorcycle officer. I didn't even know Harley still built the hand gear shift and foot clutch on that late a model, but that's what Milwaukee had because they used the bikes year round, too; put a sidecar on in the winter and took it off in the summer he told me.

Jeff396 · Feb 28, 2002

Always makes me wonder how long it would take to remember to lean the bike to the right every time. Pretty hard to put your foot down and push in the clutch at the same time!

Jeff

Bird · Feb 28, 2002

Jeff, as you undoubtedly know, humans are peculiar animals when it comes to changing things. If I remember right, it was in '66 when the Dallas PD changed from the foot clutch/hand gear shift to the foot shift. And all the motorcycle officers griped and complained and everyone wanted to be the last to have to change. And now I'll bet the current crop of officers would really gripe if they had to change back to the old way./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Anonymous Poster · Mar 1, 2002

A few years ago we had an interesting accident here (Corning, NY). A BIG tractor-trailer flat bed rig got stuck under a bridge. This was one of those rigs for hauling oversize loads. It has extra axles, so that there are 30-40 tires on the ground. It didn't damage the bridge because it was going fairly slow with the huge tank that it was hauling.

The real kicker is that it turns out that the whole suspension is adjustable, and while moving the driver could have lowered it enough to easily clear the bridge. I bet that took some explaining to the boss...

I have an 11' tall motorhome, and there are a few 9' railroad underpasses around here. I've never hit one, but twice i've come within 20' before getting it stopped. It makes me sweat just thinking about it.

Mike

Bird · Mar 4, 2002

Just watched the evening news on TV and in Dallas this morning a truck on I-30 was hauling a forklift that was too tall (supposedly 14' 6" overpass). They said it knocked the forklift off the truck, it bounced across some other lanes, and landed on a car, killing the driver (local radio DJ on his way home from work)./w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

Anonymous Poster · Mar 4, 2002

Check this out. It is a rather large file but well worth the wait!

http://home.attbi.com/~nwigen/TowBoat/towboat_files/towboat20.jpg

Thomas · Mar 5, 2002

They was T.T. hauling a huge boat that got caught up in the Boston tunnel last week,and the boat came off the trailer and roll onto a car,but nobody was hurt..whew..4 to 5 hour delay...very lucky.

MarkV · Mar 6, 2002

jd850
Was that the tug boat that went under the bridge? I saw that awhile ago and heard that the site got so many hits they had to shut it down. If this is not the same one, it would not let me in.

MarkV

Anonymous Poster · Mar 6, 2002

yes. I guess they shut the link down.

ewoss3 · Mar 7, 2002

here is the link it was working as of this post time <A target="_blank" HREF=http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm>http://koti.mbnet.fi/~soldier/towboat.htm</A>

Jeff396 · Mar 7, 2002

HOLY MOLY!/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Jeff

Mark_in_NH · Mar 7, 2002

The picture captions mentioned the bridge rail that was now under water. Is that a sign of the bridge sinking due to damage, or just that the water level near the shore line was temporarily higher due to wave action ?
Sure hope everybody came through it OK and darn glad that it wasn't me. I bet there was some laundry being washed that nite. Mark

Jag · Mar 7, 2002

Mark, you non-natutical guy. That bridge rail it the tug boat bridge rail, you know where the captian stands around.... I guess it does give new meaning to the captian saying "take the bridge"

OH YES, dirty laundry.

The one that gets me are the two workers who road on the bardge that was cut lose.... You know they made that trip under the bridge too.

Charlie_Iliff · Mar 7, 2002

The sequence of tugboat pictures is making its way around the internet at warp speed. Apparently, however, the incident was in the late 70's. The tug was deliberately dropping off the barges which would fit under the span. A line snagged, keeping the tug from running around through the open draw and back to the barges. Another tug recovered the barges and helped the tug to shore. No casualties except one drowned engine and some wet areas. The photos were printed in a newspaper, and then rumor has it the negatives were bought by a tug company and deep sixed until now.

DocHeb · Mar 7, 2002

As per Charlie, see <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.snopes.com/spoons/photos/towboat.htm>Towboat!</A>.

Any way you cut it - wow!

Jag · Mar 7, 2002

Jeff396, I went over to my ex-brother-in-law house one day and his shinny new two wheeler was just trashed on on side... What happen, he had put floor boards on it the last week, pulled up to a stop light and forgot to put his feet on the ground.. He said it stayed up right for about 10 seconds before he had to start thinking about replaceing right side body parts.... The mind is a funny thing....

Jeff396 · Mar 7, 2002

I was fortunate enough to get a Harley dresser with crash bars. You see, I'm 165 pounds soaking wet and the bike went over 800 pounds dry. It took me a good bit of time to get totally used to it and quit toppling it over but fortunately those crash bars kept me from having to replace any fiberglass (or whatever composite it's made of now). In order for me to get my feet flat on the ground I had to move forward and basically sit on the gas tank.

One time shortly after I bought the bike I fell on a highway exit ramp. Someone had left a track of antifreeze or oil around the ramp. When my rear tire hit it it just slipped right out from under me. It spun around (spit me out) and then flopped over on the other side at the last minute. The reason I tell you this is the amazing price tag to fix the bike......$6500.00!!!!! The most amazing thing was that it was okay to ride which I did while waiting a month for my repair parts to come in./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Jeff

Mark_in_NH · Mar 7, 2002

Jag, I do understand the Boats bridge rail and it was indeed underwater, but check the 11th picture in. The pictures caption says to look at the "bottom righthand side of the picture and you will see that the Bridge Guardrail is under water" and there is inded water over the guard rail. Hence my earlier question.

Jeff396 · Mar 7, 2002

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the guard rail is not under water. I believe the caption is wrong. Notice the pattern of oxydation or rust or whatever it is on the rail that looks like water over the rail continues up the rail where it is much more apparent that it isn't under water. It's hard to tell depth in a still picture but when I look real close I think the water is below the rail. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Jeff