Our Old Pal the Low-Ass 11-Foot-8 Bridge Dishes Out Hard Street Justice to a Red Light Runner

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The bridge is a frequent flyer at DU.

Our Old Pal the Low-Ass 11-Foot-8 Bridge Dishes Out Hard Street Justice to a Red Light Runner

Jason Torchinsky
Yesterday 3:18pm Filed to: CAR WRECKS

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in with my favorite local celebrity, the ornery-but-fair Durham, NC bridge we all lovingly call the 11foot8 bridge. Unlike what most people think, the name does not come from the Civil War Union General Elevah Fough-Tate, but rather from the bridge’s clearance height, which is a modest eleven feet, eight inches. The bridge’s most recent conquest was this law-scoffing box truck.

This overhang is not exactly subtle. Plenty of signage warns drivers, plus there’s a sensor before the bridge which triggers the red light, hopefully providing over-height vehicles with a clear indicator to, you know, stop. This one truck triggered the sensor, which made the light turn red, but our box truck wasn’t one to be told what to do by some stupid red light, so it zoomed through, which ended in this:

That beeping back-up-of-shame I think may be the saddest part of this video, as the driver must be taking those moments to consider the massive ass-pain his near-future life is about to become, and he must be wishing, with real, unashamed desire, for a 5-minutes-in-the-past time machine.

I think this is the bridge’s first victim since March, when it bested a military truck:

There’s no beating the bridge, people. Respect it, or be can opener’d.

[genxlib]

1. Haha

I just got dragged into a project where a truck struck a covered bridge with 10'4" clearance. That one is wood and fared a whole lot worse than the truck did.

[Mopar151]

5. Windsor, vt?

GPS beleivers.....

[genxlib]

12. Oddly enough

It is in Florida. In fact it is the only covered bridge in Florida.

And yes, there is no reason to have a covered bridge in Florida since we don have snow.

It was a gimmick by a developer in the 1960's and has become a local icon.

[Mopar151]

16. The Windsor, VT bridge has been struck twice this summer

The guy who did major damage was trying to sneak across with a delivery truck. New driver, "car sized" gps, probably no other directions. Almost had it dicked, by driving in the center - until an oncoming car ran him off into the diagonal supports.

GPS is causing a huge increase in commercial vehicle crunch n' jams hereabouts. My campfire buddies and I think this has to do with the total leavetaking of one's senses that strikes many GPS users.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. The part I never quite get when I see these videos, is that the driver

doesn't always know EXACTLY how high his vehicle is.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. And, This One Isn't Even Close

That beam looks like it peeled back 8 or 10 inches of that box roof.

And even if i didn't know EXACTLY, i'd have a pretty good idea that this might not be the best idea.

I drove the truck for the band. I did know how tall it was (my dad was a truck driver so he taught me well). But, the height is empty weigh so, it goes down a couple inches with 11k of gear.

Still, if i saw something even close, i'd look for a different route.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Not Far From Where I Work. . .

. . .there is a train overpass that is notoriously low. There are signs as big as a billboard, from both directions (at least 2 if not 3 each way) telling drivers about it. But, about once a month, some fool gets their truck stuck, or has to hold traffic in both directions while they make a 10 minute effort to make a Y turn on a fairly narrow piece of pavement.

This, apparently, happens everywhere.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. In defense of Defense: military uses metric. Bridge did not have metric height. . . . nt

[bigbrother05]

7. Military generally plan their routes carefully and take such things into account

Driver might have been in a hurry and blew off stowing the added equipment. Or local NG/AR driver decided to take a bit of a detour.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Correct. It is imperative to plan carefully. I was hoping for a chance to promote metric! . . . nt

[jmowreader]

9. Military is full of people who speak feet and inches

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. I wish the USA joined the 20th century & finished the metric conversion Ronald Reagan started

There are three non-metric countries: USA, Liberia and Burma.

Because of things like construction practices, the US is holding back full completion of conversion to metric in a number of places in the world.

[sdfernando]

11. No it wasn't Reagan

The Metric Conversion Act is an Act of Congress that U.S. President Gerald Ford signed into law on December 23, 1975

Reagan basically dismantled the effort in 1982 by stripping funding from the Metric Board an putting it under the Department of Commerce, with much less responsibility and less than a fifth of the budget.

In his last year in office, 1988 he signed an omnibus trade bill. Tucked into the 1,000-page bill was a declaration that the metric system was "the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce" and called for federal agencies to switch to the metric system wherever practical by 1992

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Thanks. Ford it was. . . . nt

[genxlib]

13. We had some momentum in the 90s

In Florida, the Department of Transportation had mandated all jobs to be done in Metric. They went to the trouble of converting all of their manuals, standard details, specifications etc.

We did only all metric jobs for a couple years. It wasn't easy to make the transition but it makes so much more sense once you adapt.

The engineering community was basically completely adapted. But then the Contractor community complained and it all got rolled back.

I agree with you that we should have converted long ago. It is telling that we use the "English" system which the English don't even use anymore.

[LanternWaste]

14. Not Reagan.

The National Bureau of Standards in 1964 issued a statement it would convert, followed by congress passing the Metric Conversion Act in '75.

Reagan in fact, advised by the anti-metric Lyn Nofziger, disbanded by underfunding the United States Metric Board.