The most amazing thing about this video is not the trucks hitting the bridge, it’s the sheer number of trucks hitting it. This railway bridge is 11 ft 8 in high, 3.56 metres in Aussie terms, and it is clearly signed, but there is a never ending stream of truckies willing to sacrifice their truck to the bridge.
The bridge stands in Durham, North Carolina and the railway company have set up signs and flashing lights to warn about the bridge height, but to no avail. The bridge is now fitted with a large steel I beam across the road to protect the structure of the bridge from the continuous impacts. Local business owner Jurgen Henn has been recording all of the accidents from two locations since 2009, documenting the ongoing madness. He posts the events on his website and YouTube channel.
A new technology to be trialled in Melbourne will come too late to save the trucks in the video. but may save some damage in the future. As part of the Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) World Congress in Melbourne in 2016, the city will be trialling a warning system to save the low bridges in the CBD. Several bridges like the one on the corner of Spencer and Flinders Street are hit on a weekly basis.
One of the proposed solutions involves a warning message transmitted over the 5.9 Gh frequency, reserved globally for use by ITS in vehicle to vehicle or infrastructure to vehicle communication. Receivers in the cabin will warn of a low bridge ahead in time for the truck to find an alternative route.
Somehow DieselNews doubts this will be the last time we see trucks hitting low bridges. In fact, again this week, there was this event under a bridge in Boston Mass.
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