Track Hoe, and Bridge, no winner

[turbo36]

Not really. Apparently the empty truck had just unloaded a load of blacktop. People on the jobsite said they saw the bed going down and the driver take off and then saw the bed going back up. Driver made it about 1/8 of a mile from the job site when the bed hit the overpass. It had gone up about 3 feet.

Was it preventable, sure it was. Was the driver in a rush, probably so, most dump truck drivers are since they get paid by the load and not mileage.

Actually there are quite a few dump truck beds that hit bridges every year in the US. I can think of 6 that I know of.

We had the exact same thing happen to a local paving company truck around 3 years ago except the driver was killed. I go by the spot it happened every day on the way to work and see the memorial cross.

 

[Destructo_D]

Yikes!! I can just imagine the phone call to the boss.

not exactly the same, but probably 25 - 30 years ago my dad was loading a 45 foot van trailer getting ready for the owner and another employee to go about 5 hours north of where we live.... he was working in the evening and it was snowing really hard.... He pulled the trailer away from the door and somehow got up against a telephone pole in the parking lot and tore one of the doors off. Of course had to phone the boss to say what happened and the trailer wasn;t useable until fixed... Boss's reply... laughed and more or less said, that's ok... i wasn't looking forward to going out on the road in this blizzard anyway.

 

[S205Sam]

I cannot imagine what went through the poor drivers mind when the unexpected auxilliary brakes all of a sudden came on. Had to put some major forces on the driver.

Hope he/she lived to tell the story.

 

[MarkStewart]

Yeah looks like the truck went from 55-65mph to 0mph in about 15 feet.

When I transport our excavator(pc220) at work we load it with boom facing to rear of trailer. I can't recall seeing anyone hauling a larger machine like that with boom facing forwards. I haven't been looking though.

 

[Charlesaf3]

wow. Forget the truck and trackhoe - I hope bridge repairs are cheaper around there than they are around here!

 

[Renze]

My uncle used to work along the road, as an electrician. He saw this happening some 25 years ago, the raised dump box hit the bridge and smashed the cab up to the underside of the bridge. Because the distance between the job site and the bridge was little, the speed was low and there was only material damage. The truck cab was lowered a few inches though...