What is it these days about truck drivers & bridges?



Truck with digger hit the bridge. It's possible that the truck driver does not have a license to operate diggers but it's his responsibility to ensure his load.

Have transported diggers in the past but unlike that guy, have ensured the digger arm is lowered on the flatbed. Looking at the 2nd photo in the report, the rest of that flatbed is empty, so the driver will have some questions to answer.

M20 closed

Looking at the 2nd photo in the report, the rest of that flatbed is empty, so the driver will have some questions to answer.

The excavator might have been further forward on the truck before it hit the bridge.
The bike rider was very lucky to get out of it with just possibly broken ribs.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Doubt it as there is a dumper truck in the way. Dumper should have been placed at the headwall with the digger at the rear with the arm lowered. As for the motorcyclist, he was very lucky he had the time to throw himself off the bike & only suffered cracked ribs.

Doubt it as there is a dumper truck in the way.

Ah, didn't notice it in the other shot.

I think there were quite a few very lucky people there if cracked ribs & a shaken up driver or 2 are the only casualties from that mess.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Sorry Grant, it's not in the other shot. Got that as a screenshot from the aerial video.

Totally agree, the whole incident was very lucky in that no serious causalities or fatalities involved.

As with all forms of transport, just an extra few minutes evaluating the load will always prevent incidents such as this thereby making it much more safer for everyone.

Edit: I feel sorry for the transport company as that is going to be one hell of an insurance headache.

Ooops...revised opinion.

Dumper truck couldn't be at headwall due to it being a low loader trailer. Still, the digger's shovel should have been placed on the higher deck which would have provided a much lower profile & bridge would not have been hit.

Screengrab from Google Streetview.



Looking at the broken stub-end of the bridge in relation to the digger arm in the previous picture, I must say I query whether the arm was too high, or whether the bridge clearance over the hard shoulder was not as high as it should have been?

At least the streetview image shows that the bridge came apart at a construction/expansion joint - lends credibility to the statements that the remaining 'bridge to nowhere' over the eastbound carriageway is structurally sound.

That's true of many footbridges as well as some bridges. However, that trailer had the space to provide a much lower profile of the load in question.

This is how low the bridge came down, the biker had to throw Himself from the bike I read.

A motorcyclist in his 50s was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs.

Sonny Gladdish, who was just behind the crash when it happened, said the motorcyclist had thrown himself off his bike to avoid the impact.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

Ooops...revised opinion.

Dumper truck couldn't be at headwall due to it being a low loader trailer. Still, the digger's shovel should have been placed on the higher deck which would have provided a much lower profile & bridge would not have been hit.

Hummmmmmm looking at other dumpers it looks like they have a safety bar for the operator. (Now under the bridge) If this one did, then I don't think the digger arm would have fit over it and been any lower. In that case should have been two loads.

However a little rotation of the bucket and it looks like the arm could have been dropped a bit. Perhaps this is why. Or perhaps the bucket should have been detached from the arm getting an even lower set. If the driver isn't qualified on the equipment he is transporting he might not know how stow it.

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The safety bar is actually a ROPS frame. A folding safety frame which is a legal requirement in the UK, so the bucket would have had no problem fitting over it (as it could be unlocked & folded down) onto the higher deck on the low loader.

The safety bar is actually a ROPS frame. A folding safety frame which is a legal requirement in the UK, so the bucket would have had no problem fitting over it (as it could be unlocked & folded down) onto the higher deck on the low loader.

Fold? I guess they want them to fail when they roll. Here I'd expect a full cage anyway to give flying/dropped materials protection as well.

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Screengrab from Google Streetview.


Looking at the broken stub-end of the bridge in relation to the digger arm in the previous picture, I must say I query whether the arm was too high, or whether the bridge clearance over the hard shoulder was not as high as it should have been?

Odds on it was clearance over the hard shoulder, a couple of years ago during road works on the M1 there was a couple of minor bridge strikes when they were using hard shoulder as inside lane, they narrowed the hard shoulder by about 6 inches past the bridges for the remainder of the road works.

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Kevin

Odds on it was clearance over the hard shoulder, a couple of years ago during road works on the M1 there was a couple of minor bridge strikes when they were using hard shoulder as inside lane, they narrowed the hard shoulder by about 6 inches past the bridges for the remainder of the road works.

Most of the motorways/freeways here the shoulder is meant for emergency breakdown parking, so it has to be at least wide enough for a full width truck to park on without impinging on the left hand lane.

Then of course you get the %^#%tards that like to use the emergency lane as part of the road.
7th of May this year a person was killed & another injured in Melbourne when they stopped in the emergency lane as one of them was feeling ill. A car that was driving in the emergency lane slammed into the back of the stopped car.
Then you have the other extreme, June 3rd a teenager was killed while changing a flat tyre on his ute. He was changing it in the centre lane, not the emergency lane.

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Grant
Darwin NT

A: Quite sturdy & Safe.
B: Locked in place when in use.

Forward tipping dumpers

If it wasn't serious, it would be comical

So no chance the local window cleaner can get any work done until 2017 :-)

German efficiency at its very best -not

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

If I recall correctly. It was due to a timming issue.

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The single issue that defies all forms of Transport Safety.

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