Identify the car

Oh heres a video of the bridge I am talking about...

Lots of accident videos on you tube...

Semi Truck on Merritt Parkway, Connecticut - YouTube

Same bridge different truck...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSvIZJ6DZ2I&feature=related



Any truck driver who can't tell it's a 9'6" high bridge and tries to go under it with a 13'6" high trailer shouldn't be driving a truck in the first place. We get probably 10 a year downtown Spokane even with flashing lights and warnings - some idiot will try to go under the railroad bridge that's only 12'0" clearance, DUH!

Hits the bridge at 30mph and the next stop is at the dentist office.



Pete
 
The picture reminds me of a wreck I saw about 45 years ago. A friend of mine was drag racing his '65 'vette against another guy's '66. We watched them as the tail lights went down the road, and saw my friend lose control, sending the 'vette into a tree at about 90 MPH. The fiberglass body disintegrated, and my friend was pinned between the rear axle and dash, after the driveshaft broke.

wasn't at a HS party on catawba island was it? About 1969?
 
It was a Camry.

The driver was on a rural interstate late at night doing about 55. A semi overtook it, striking it in the rear. The driver hit his brakes and the semi hit it again, causing the semi cab to climb on top of the car. The inertia of the semi pushed the car some 400 feet down the highway, then off the shoulder and another 878 feet where the car hit a tree. That stopped all forward movement but caused the semi to go the rest of the way on to the top of the car. Basically it was a rear end collision, a frontal collision and a top crush.

Had the truck driver set the cruise control and climbed into the rear cabin for a nap? Whatever the mechanism, it looks pretty inexcusable.

I have a question for you. Given your experience, why are truck drivers always hitting stuff on the shoulder? BTW, this is not just a US issue as there have been a rash of incidents in Europe, too.
 
Had the truck driver set the cruise control and climbed into the rear cabin for a nap? Whatever the mechanism, it looks pretty inexcusable.

I have a question for you. Given your experience, why are truck drivers always hitting stuff on the shoulder? BTW, this is not just a US issue as there have been a rash of incidents in Europe, too.

Steve, truck drivers hit things in the roads, off the roads, on the shoulder of the roads and anywhere else they can find.

I am not knocking truckers. They have a difficult job and I did it as well while in college (before the days of CDL). Long hours, lots of time alone makes on sleepy, distractions such as cell phones and many other reasons for causing the accidents they have. In addition, motorists cause truckers to have accidents by cutting in front of them, trying to squeeze into their lane of travel, stopping suddenly in front of them and many more ways. Then we have the stress factor. Short delivery times, break downs, traffic tie ups and other things that dig into their pockets financially. They speed to make up time and those rigs will not stop quickly.

Trucking companies are to blame as well. They lowered their hiring standards, often do not pay fairly and ignore their bad drivers. I have one case where a driver had 11 traffic tickets across the US, three DUI convictions, five accidents and was driving under suspension. Yet the company kept him on the road. He is now banned from the driving anything until Sept of 2015. So he is driving a local big rig and his new employer knows he does not have a license but has a lot of experience.

Many times, we fail to know why an accident happened but we know what caused it. In the OP, the guy was either on the cell phone or dozed off. He would not admit to either but was fired from the company he worked for.

Right now I am working 27 major traffic accidents, meaning accidents that caused death, permanent incapacitating injury or multiple critical injuries. Of those, 19 are with 18 wheelers. I will be on Hwy 175 here in Louisiana all day tomorrow doing a highway survey to complete a reconstruction from an accident that should not have happened that left a lady crippled.
 
What is it with some of the truckers these days??? I don't remember at any point in my life until this last few years when they just started to be a menace in general. You used to just get that one or two every now and then. Now things like "compact'ed" cars are so everyday news that I skim over the article. I see an average of at least two cars a month hit trucker tire remains that litter the interstate. There is no way that all the cars swerving around that mess don't add up to more trucker related accidents. It's not that I want to badmouth all the truckers and I know the products we buy mostly all come by truck, but I have just never before seen so many problems with them.
 
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