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MassDOT: You bet we're going after the Alabama company whose driver took out one of our bridges
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Comments
There’s gotta be an easier
There’s gotta be an easier way to get your company on one of those “sponsor a highway” signs…
Don't tempt me
I live within walking distance.
If you want some fun, check out the Medford FD Local 1032 on Twitter and FB the pictures are amazing and the comments from the local working folk are merciless:
https://twitter.com/MedfordMAFire
https://www.facebook.com/medfordfire1032/
This is what happens
When you decide that only the honor students need to learn math, units of measurement, and reading comprehension.
Kind of surprised that the state is actually fining anyone - I guess the driver and trucking company didn't kill a doctor on a bike when they demolished the bridge with an oversized vehicle that didn't have a flag car or file for a permit for their route.
Was the bridge wearing headphones?
The driver is from Alabama of
The driver is from Alabama of course. When red staters don’t learn how to read the blue states pay the price.
Knowing math won't help if
Knowing math won't help if you're solving the wrong problem, like "is the fine for taking a non-permitted route less by choosing that route?" or "what fraction of trucks that take the wrong route get tickets?"
Stupid driver must be related to...
Tommy Tuberville
Driver
I wonder if the driver was instructed/coerced by the bosses to take this specific route than the approved route? The company sounds like it was intentionally cutting corners by not hiring the required flag cars to escort the truck.
No approved route
They didn't file for one, nor did they have a flag car.
Anything that hits an interstate bridge or overpass automatically needs both.
Unless they are recent career changers, both the driver and the passenger/co-driver are old enough to know better.
There is one and only one thing that could have prevented this mishap:
Driver might know better…
…but the it might be a “if you want a pay check, you need to shut up and drive” situation. This doesn’t absolve the driver, but the people who run the long haul trucking industry, beyond cheating regulations, are known for poor treatment and over-extension of drivers.
I don't think the driver knew better
Sadly, he didn't bother to measure the load and anticipate the inevitable consequences.
Any driver that knew better would know better than to drive a load with full expectation of big trouble.
Any experienced trucker should have known better, period. My cousins have walked on overheight and poorly secured logging loads because they know that paycheck isn't worth their career or losing everything they have worked for when they inevitably hit something.
Trucking needs to be reregulated and returned to being a profession. Full stop.
Absurd and hyperbolic
They only needed a 25' tape measure, max.
FATMAX
Sorry - I couldn't resist FATMAX.
Please reread the original
Please reread the original post. They did file a permit for a route, but it wasn't the route they took, the load was bigger than permitted, and they didn't have the required escort.
New information
Thank you.
Perhaps but
A truck driver should pay attention to height of looming overpasses
Where are the chains at the
Where are the chains at the entrances to sturrow so people could get off before getting into trouble?
They didn't work
Seriously, people just ignored the chains and kept going.
There was a tunnel in Paris near the Arc De Triomphe that was called "the Serial Tunnel" (at http://2m40.com) that has photos under "classic-touch" of many of the wrecks into that tunnel roof. Eventually they installed a sacrificial I-Beam. And with the pandemic, they've closed it altogether.
And of course, there's the 11foot8 trestle down in North Carolina; http://11foot8.com/.
No matter what warning signal you put up, there's always someone who's "too smart" to pay attention. SMDH.
Land of the free
Some may argue we live in a nanny state and our freedoms have been eroded, but we’re still more than welcome to ignore clearly stated roadway signs and choose to stupid things that will certainly damage or destroy public property.
This wasn't Storrow
Are you suggesting every bridge should have chains or a hanging bar in advance of it?
$210 fine?
What good is that for either deterrence or punishment?
Not done yet
That's just the driver fine.
The big money comes when the state charges the company for the cost of a rebuilt bridge.
Future bankruptcy?
Are companies allowed out of court-ordered compensation when they go bankrupt? If so, expect Dove Trucking to close and reappear under a different name.
Corporations are people, my friend
And when they die, there's not much you can do.
The state will get whatever they can from the insurance of the truck and company which is hopefully a few million. There's a chance the company owns enough trucks and other tangible goods to cover their expenses beyond that. But if not, likely they will fold with the employees free to move onto other firms and do the same sorts of things.
It's unlikely MA will be fully compensated for the recovery and rebuild of the bridge.
Small-scale company - LLC
Read that they have something like $1 million in liability, and only since 2014 have they had any insurance at all.
I'm betting their equipment is worth some more on top of that, but not enough to cover the damage.
Yep
This sounded from the get-go like a small operation cutting corners. They don't have the scratch to cover the damage, no matter how hard they're squeezed.
You broke the bridge
you just bought it.