TRUCK DRIVERS
CONTINUE TO MAKE MISTAKES AND MISS LOW CLEARANCE BRIDGES DESPITE SIGNS
The Brady Street Bridge in claimed another truck Wednesday
morning. Traffic was not badly impacted. A tow truck pulled the cab out and the
trailer was cleared a few hours later. Davenport’s traffic engineer says when
you combine the bridge crash records, they average one hit per month.
The trucking company in Wednesday’s accident has a clean
safety record. Records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
show North American Trading had zero accidents in the last two years. Of course
that safety data does not include Wednesday’s accident. The company also passed
two driver inspections, putting it well below the national average for
inspection failures.
However, these bridges keep getting hit. The experts TV-6
talked to say a lot of it has to do with a driver making a mistake, even with
all the warning markings.
“Distracted, he’s on the phone, he’s doing something else…”
Listing off the things that can lead to a bridge hit.
“…blindly following a G.P.S. navigation system,” says Scott
Community College Truck Driving Program Facilitator Ray Hitchcock.
He doesn’t understand why the drivers don’t see the signs.
“Companies will tell you to follow 61 but they also expect
you to think for yourself,” says Hitchcock.
He says companies take safety seriously. They’ll train and
re-train drivers to keep the cargo moving.
“Drivers have to take a certain amount of responsibility, I
mean you have to know what you’re doing out there with that rig,” says
Hitchcock.
Iowa D.O.T. Engineer Doug Rick says the bridges will still
get hit.
“I think as long as we have that bridge and we have that
reduced clearance, we’re going to have some hits on that bridge,” says Rick.
The warning system on Harrison Street is over a decade old.
Why not install tubes like the ones protecting the Kirkwood bridge?
“If you had the tubes across the road, a lot of trucks are
going to hit those tubes that were destined for fifth street, they had no
intention of going under the bridge,” says Rick.
He says those tubes would constantly get hit by trucks
driving down Harrison without guaranteeing they’d prevent a truck from trying
to clear the bridge. He also wouldn’t know where they’d work on Brady Street.
So the D.O.T will keep looking for other solutions.
“We’d like to see it, at zero is the number I want to live
with,” says Rick.
Why not have the railroad paint the bridge pink?
“You have to ask if they haven’t seen five or six signs, if
they haven’t seen the flashing light, and all the paint on that bridge, are
they going to see pink?” says Hitchcock.
This is the first truck eating bridge incident in 2015.
Accidents have come down over the years, but seeing zeros isn’t likely.
Here are some photos from past incidents in this and other low clearance bridges and overpasses.
The Brady Street Bridge in claimed another truck Wednesday
morning. Traffic was not badly impacted. A tow truck pulled the cab out and the
trailer was cleared a few hours later. Davenport’s traffic engineer says when
you combine the bridge crash records, they average one hit per month.
The trucking company in Wednesday’s accident has a clean
safety record. Records from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
show North American Trading had zero accidents in the last two years. Of course
that safety data does not include Wednesday’s accident. The company also passed
two driver inspections, putting it well below the national average for
inspection failures.
However, these bridges keep getting hit. The experts TV-6
talked to say a lot of it has to do with a driver making a mistake, even with
all the warning markings.
“Distracted, he’s on the phone, he’s doing something else…”
Listing off the things that can lead to a bridge hit.
“…blindly following a G.P.S. navigation system,” says Scott
Community College Truck Driving Program Facilitator Ray Hitchcock.
He doesn’t understand why the drivers don’t see the signs.
“Companies will tell you to follow 61 but they also expect
you to think for yourself,” says Hitchcock.
He says companies take safety seriously. They’ll train and
re-train drivers to keep the cargo moving.
“Drivers have to take a certain amount of responsibility, I
mean you have to know what you’re doing out there with that rig,” says
Hitchcock.
Iowa D.O.T. Engineer Doug Rick says the bridges will still
get hit.
“I think as long as we have that bridge and we have that
reduced clearance, we’re going to have some hits on that bridge,” says Rick.
The warning system on Harrison Street is over a decade old.
Why not install tubes like the ones protecting the Kirkwood bridge?
“If you had the tubes across the road, a lot of trucks are
going to hit those tubes that were destined for fifth street, they had no
intention of going under the bridge,” says Rick.
He says those tubes would constantly get hit by trucks
driving down Harrison without guaranteeing they’d prevent a truck from trying
to clear the bridge. He also wouldn’t know where they’d work on Brady Street.
So the D.O.T will keep looking for other solutions.
“We’d like to see it, at zero is the number I want to live
with,” says Rick.
Why not have the railroad paint the bridge pink?
“You have to ask if they haven’t seen five or six signs, if
they haven’t seen the flashing light, and all the paint on that bridge, are
they going to see pink?” says Hitchcock.
This is the first truck eating bridge incident in 2015.
Accidents have come down over the years, but seeing zeros isn’t likely.