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Smushed truck in East Boston
By adamg on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 7:34am
Jason Rowe came upon this jacknifed and crushed truck at Neptune Road and Bennington Street in East Boston around 7 a.m., reports traffic is, as you might expect, a mess.
UPDATE, 8:30 a.m. Dave Barboza reports traffic is backed up to Hermon Street in Winthrop.
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Comments
Was this a low-clearance accident?
No
I think he cut it too close trying to make the turn from Neptune to 1A South and it one of the supports. He was just too close to the side.
(I went by there at 7AM on my way to Wood Island Station)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BoE7MXFIMAAPIds.jpg
(PS - Adam why can't I embed an image?)
Neptune Square overpass
Whew! Left early today and got through there about 10-15 minutes before this happened.
Large truck issues are a regular occurrence there. Coming off of the tail end of 90East/1A north down the ramp, truckers trying to circle around to get back onto 1A going south (to get to 90W I'm assuming) will have a hard time making the turn. I'm not sure that the issue is so much vertical clearance, if the trucks stay on the road. Sometimes they end up going up onto the curb and catch the edge of the support pillars as they flare out towards the top. More frequently they end up making the Turn of a Thousand Adjustments and tie up traffic for 10-15 minutes.
Not sure what happened with this guy.
Eastie generally has
Some of the dumbest intersections in the city. John-W has a great point about this one above. Then there's Bennington at Brooks, and don't even get me started on the mess at Central Square.
Saratoga and Brooks? Why there?
It looks to me like a pretty ordinary 90-degree street crossing.
My mistake
Definitely meant Bennington and Brooks. Fixed the original post.
And if you're not familiar, the light there is the issue.
What's the problem with the
What's the problem with the light?
It looks like a normal intersection: http://goo.gl/maps/n28G8
Looks can be deceiving
With the exception of when it's a 3 way red to let pedestrians cross (Brooks is a 1 way), the Brooks side is always a flashing yellow, which often backs up traffic at busy times, and the Bennington side is always a flashing red, which combined with Bennington being one of the main thoroughfares in Eastie, causes said backup at Brooks.
Going up Brooks, it's often hard to see down the right side of Bennington to tell if anything is coming due to parked cars, and to the left, Havre forks into Bennington and they meet just before the intersection, often creating 2 lanes where there should only be one.
The Brooks side starts flashing a few seconds before the Bennington side, giving 1, maybe 2 cars enough time to get through, but that's assuming pedestrians aren't still in the middle of one of the crosswalks and someone does't try to take a right on red or an illegal left from Bennington.
Add pedestrians crossing whenever they want to the mix as well.
It's really hard to describe all of the fuckery that happens there and have it make sense, but just drive through the intersection once from each direction, especially between 3-6pm and you'll get it.
I've never understood why they don't just make it a regular 3 color signal, and stick a red yield at Havre.
He's right, it's terrible
One of the reasons I stopped voting for our councillor Sal LaMattina is because he has promised to fix this in the past, but has done nothing. A 3-way stop would be a huge improvement to what they have now (and stop signs would be cheaper). Intelligently programmed lights would also work.
Insider tip - approach the intersection from Havre instead of Brooks whenever possible. Also, I hate pushing the walk button since it stops traffic for too long, so I usually wait for a kind motorist to let people cross and let someone from Brooks take a turn.
I agree
I used to live on this block of Bennington, and that light always caused problems... I'm surprised there aren't more accidents there, and traffic at peak times gets backed up simply because people can't figure out (for good reason) who has the right of way. It's confusing since some of the lights face the wrong direction (so the signal for Brooks actually faces the Bennington St traffic coming from the left). Not to mention that sections of the street are too narrow for 2-way traffic, and throw in the idiots who double park rather than pull into an open spot 10 feet further (god forbid someone walk), and it's a nightmare.
Anything would be an improvement over the current setup.
How can you tell its the signal/s
when Boston motorists motor like they're out of their minds?
Motorists don't understand chaos is less efficient than order.
Everyone speeding causes traffic to "platoon" when it otherwise naturally would not. A great many traffic issues (and crashes) are caused by motorists just doing what they do rather than what they should do, and know they should do.
Weird East Boston intersections
You've got a bunch, all caused by Eastie being developed on several different street-grid systems that meet at odd angles.
This one's my favorite: http://goo.gl/maps/oQan5 . Look at all the turns you have to make in quick succession if you're riding from the Meridian Street bridge to Orient Heights.
I don't know
How I forgot about that one! At least coming from that direction you have somewhat of a right of way. Trying to get from Neptune to Chelsea St. is a joke, especially if you're taking a left. If I catch the left arrow or there's no traffic coming opposite, I always try to take the left turn onto Bennington coming from the Pike/1A and then try my luck with the stop sign at Javeli's.
When will these trucks ever
When will these trucks ever learn. There is at least 1 accident a month in the same spot.the State should create a huge sign stating height limitations.
Not a height issue
Rather, it's inadequate roadway geometry that can't accommodate the turning radius of longer trucks.
Inadequate roadway geometry?
Or lack of experience/attention on the part of the driver?
I've seen drivers turn triple rigs in a single lane before, so I'm not convinced.
That doesn't sound mutually exclusive
Experience/attention on the driver versus structural-geometrical design of the road does not sound like it has to be one or the other.
I mean increase experience and attention of a driver would mean less incidences like this. However, having a larger intersection also accomplishes the same as one can't hit something of there's nothing to hit.
Between the two, there's would require some kind of balance. Because expecting a truck driver to always drive perfectly will fail as there's always "that one time, that one driver" who will make that mistake given enough of given scenario. However, we don't always want to make more turning room either as there's costs to space and possible other things depending on location.
And then there's middle ground things to consider too. Like devices that would increase awareness and thus attention of the driver when approaching corners like this.
As I understand it
triple 28 foot trailers have a tighter turning radius than a single 53 foot trailer does @@
@@ source - close friend who's driven trucks for UPS for the past twenty years
It is the height
It actually is a clearance issue.
The way the road rises there to clear the haul / bypass road below (formerly RR tracks) means that a truck making the turn runs out of clearance room mid-turn, even though it can clear it while directly below the overpass. There are huge signs everywhere, but this guy must have missed them..