scottydoesntknow: MaudlinMutantMollusk: Oh, look... they're hiring drivers, too

/one extra now, I bet

I was really hoping for one of those "How's My Driving?" stickers.

No, but instead "Drivers wanted" is painted on the back.

I did that once, but i was walking.

Some video goodness: http://11foot8.com/

There is a bridge so famous for shredding trucks, it has its own website:
http://11foot8.com/

ongbok: scottydoesntknow: MaudlinMutantMollusk: Oh, look... they're hiring drivers, too

/one extra now, I bet

I was really hoping for one of those "How's My Driving?" stickers.

No, but instead "Drivers wanted" is painted on the back.

Hey guys, did you notice that the company is hiring drivers? Because I bet this guy is getting fired

"Police said the truck made it under the trestle but the top of the truck was sheared off."

Mighty fine reporting there Lou

ultnightmares: ongbok: scottydoesntknow: MaudlinMutantMollusk: Oh, look... they're hiring drivers, too

/one extra now, I bet

I was really hoping for one of those "How's My Driving?" stickers.

No, but instead "Drivers wanted" is painted on the back.

Hey guys, did you notice that the company is hiring drivers? Because I bet this guy is getting fired

Say, the headline writer should have made a joke about that. It would have generated many LMAOs!

That trailer is 13'6", not 12'. Subby should not apply to replace that driver.

Lars The Canadian Viking: There is a bridge so famous for shredding trucks, it has its own website:
http://11foot8.com/


I realize that raising the bridge would be expensive, why don't they just dig the road down a foot or two lower?
There's liable to be several feet of pavement there just from repeated re-pavings.

Kurmudgeon: Lars The Canadian Viking: There is a bridge so famous for shredding trucks, it has its own website:
http://11foot8.com/


I realize that raising the bridge would be expensive, why don't they just dig the road down a foot or two lower?
There's liable to be several feet of pavement there just from repeated re-pavings.

A local road dips down underneath a bridge, the problem being, the wheels are not in the dip when the truck hits the bridge. Most of the trucks only lose a couple of inches off the top.

Like you farkers always do exactly what all road signs tell you to do. You've never done 60 a in a 55? Or rolled through a stop sign? Same thing.

Robots are Strong: Like you farkers always do exactly what all road signs tell you to do. You've never done 60 a in a 55? Or rolled through a stop sign? Same thing.

5 MPH over the limit is not the same as 5 inches taller than the clearance.

Reminds me of the time I was sitting in a bar in Homer, LA, and a fellow who had a few hours earlier hit a TRAIN with his log truck walked into the bar. The guys were all asking him about how he managed to live through it, as the word that the train had derailed two engines and a half dozen full box cars had already reached the bar. He was telling the tale of how his breaks were not working, and that he had jake braked to slow down as much as he could with a load on before bailing out of the cab a few feet before the collision, which he knew he could not stop. And of course, one smart ass redneck mechanic asked what kind tractor it was, to which the much bruised and battered driver replied, "Well she's a cab-over now!" It still cracks me up to this day.


/csb

I've always wondered what a truck driver is supposed to do when they encounter a bridge that is too low.

Well right in the middle of the whole danged show was a tunnel and wouldntcha know...the sign said clearance to the twelve foot line, but the chickens was stacked to thirteen nine. Well, we shot through the tunnel like gas through a funnel or eggs through a hen and took that top row of chickens off slicker than scum off a loosiana swamp...

/obscure?

Too bad that happened on his last day.

Githerax: I've always wondered what a truck driver is supposed to do when they encounter a bridge that is too low.

Make a u-turn and find a detour would be my guess.

I've always wondered how accurate the measurements are. Maybe the listed clearance is sometimes an inch or two lower than the actual one? Maybe it's up to six inches in some places, so the driver thinks he still might be able to make it? Maybe the driver is high and/or drunk?

This happens on the Long Island parkways fairly often. The signs say no commercial trucks but inevitably they go on anyway. There are some clearances that are under 8 ft. Don't bring moving trucks on them either.

or let some air out of the tires and creep through.

jake_lex: scottydoesntknow: Githerax: I've always wondered what a truck driver is supposed to do when they encounter a bridge that is too low.

I'm gonna guess the exact opposite of what the driver in the article did

I'm gonna guess they're supposed to take routes that do not take them under bridges/overpasses too low for their truck.

There is an app for that.

There's a bridge in Greensboro where this used to happen all the time, I haven't seen it since they put up lights that flash when you are too tall but I'm not up there as much anymore. Years ago there was a comic book store on the corner close to it, this was at a time before they would run the homeless people off for standing around. One day I was out there when a truck was stuck under the bridge and they were trying to pull it out, there was an old homeless man yelling at them to "let the air out of the tires dumbasses!"


/csb
//let me know if you want me to tell it again

I spent an hour yesterday stuck behind a truck wedged under a railroad underpass before traffic finally cleared, so I'm not getting a kick...

The driver was ranting to the DPS about how they weren't going to deflate his tires because it would ruin them when he drove out on flats. The regional officer for DPS 'explained' to him that when pulling an oversize in width and height without an escort or even oversize placards, headed right to the center of town, and then wedging said load into the bottom of a Santa Fe double track... that his tires just really wouldn't be much of an issue, what with no CDL anymore and all.

I used to work for them.

No, I didn't hit a bridge.

Thanks MilesTeg

Lol, this is about 5 miles from my house.

Nothing To See Here: Thanks MilesTeg

Where does his brain go?

farkityfarker: Githerax: I've always wondered what a truck driver is supposed to do when they encounter a bridge that is too low.

Make a u-turn and find a detour would be my guess.

I've always wondered how accurate the measurements are. Maybe the listed clearance is sometimes an inch or two lower than the actual one? Maybe it's up to six inches in some places, so the driver thinks he still might be able to make it? Maybe the driver is high and/or drunk?

There are usually advance signs to these situations, and the rand McNally motor carrier atlas lists the vast majority of low clearance locations in America. So if you still miss all the warnings, you're a colossal idiot and deserve to lose your CDL.

It's unfortunate from the article that it seems to indicate that there's no crash bar before the bridge to reduce chances of damage to the bridge itself.

But yeah, you're supposed to stop, backup and turn around. If you're stuck in traffic, it's better to look like an idiot and get some help than being one and causing significant damage.

Yes, sometimes the clearance listed is an inch it two lower than the actual listed one, but that's not something you should count on. Or if you must, slow down to snail pace before passing to see if you can - i know i did once (i didn't fit).

Lowering the suspension is only marginally useful (you might get an inch or two, if anything at all) and deflating tires would ruin them. Besides deflating and reinflating them would take an hour at least. There's about a hundred pounds of pressure in them and they are much larger in volume than your average car tire.

Kurmudgeon: I realize that raising the bridge would be expensive, why don't they just dig the road down a foot or two lower?

That's in their FAQ:

Can't the road be lowered?

That would be prohibitively expensive because a sewer main runs just a few feet below the road bed. That sewer main also dates back about a hundred years and, again, at the time there were no real standards for minimum clearance for railroad underpasses.

Just make all bridges where trucks go compatible with 13' 6" trucks (the maximum height allowed). Not today, but within the next 10 years, then this should not be an issue.

I say "should" not, since our roads are a government thing, and we can all see how well government-run things have worked so far.

...Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know?
Sign says clearance to the twelve-foot line, but the chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine. Well we shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten, like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen, and we took that top row of chickens off slicker than scum off a Lousiana swamp. ..

Funny story, bro.

When my dad was a truck driver in the DC/VA area, he once went to a bridge where the sign read something shorter than what he knew his trailer was. With no way to back out, he simply stopped before the bridge and called for local police to help him out turning around. A good 20 minutes later, local police rolled up next to him asking if he broke down or something. He says no, his trailer is just too tall for the bridge. The cop gives him this look like he was speaking Taiwanese, looks at the bridge and looks back at the truck and says, "Oh ... I think it'll make it, buddy." Dad says, "Are you crazy? There's a good foot difference between that bridge and this truck!" Cop says, "I think it's more that a foot, but in the opposite direction." Dad gets out and no sooner does his feet hit the ground and looks up at the bridge did he realize that the bridge was way, way taller than the clearance sign. Apparently, the road crew put up the wrong sign at this bridge. It was off by quite a wide margin. Dad laughs at himself and gets back in his rig and starts it up while thanking the cop for his trouble. Just before he pulled away, the cop says, "I think we just figured out why that one bridge across town keeps getting hit." ... or something to that effect.

bmihura: Just make all bridges where trucks go compatible with 13' 6" trucks (the maximum height allowed). Not today, but within the next 10 years, then this should not be an issue.

I say "should" not, since our roads are a government thing, and we can all see how well government-run things have worked so far.

My guess is there are very, very few places where a truck can't go because of low bridges. There's a few in my city, but you can detour around them pretty easily. Take the interstate to the next exit and work your way back or something similar. And you're not going to stop the dumbass truckers from going where they shouldn't be, so you would need EVERY bridge to be tall to completely stop these incidents.

I'm pretty sure Jack Burton would manage to fit his too tall truck under the too short bridge