Damn Trucks

[Eddieb]

Had a bit of a close call this afternoon following a LinFox transport truck underneath the Normandale overbridge in Lower Hutt.

Said truck was a couple of inches too high for the bridge and scrapped the entire length of it's second trailer along the underside of the bridge, showering me in tennis ball sized bits of concrete and other debris and ripping off a 6-8 foot length of metal railing and leaving it hanging over the road.

Theres no way the trucky could not have realised what happened but he just kept on going into Lower hutt. I was on the way to the girlfriends so as soon as I arrived rang the local copshop who told me someone else had rung it in and they had a car on the way down.

I didn't get the plate unfortunately as I was too busy stopping and checking everything was ok. I hope the cops can and do track down which driver it was.

[Milky]

gutted.... glad to hear you are ok though. Wasnt there another case where a double decker full of revellers did the same thing in the UK? only in that case the top level was populated by people:sick:

[wkid_one]

That is a fucken HUGE fine for the driver - pity you didn't get the rego...

[dangerous]

Ohhh i'd say that he would have knowen and if he did then he should of stoped to check his load, but if he dident relise then you cant blame him for not stopping.

Does this bridge have a hight warning sign above it?? If not then the driver would not expect to of hit it, if so then that means that it is lower than the legal max hight of a truck (4.250m) and his truck would not of been higher than this so he could not of hit it. But he obvisuly did so something isent right.

I once hit number 1 tunnel on the Kaikoura cost and I sure as hell felt it but as it is a one way and is rounded at the top means that you have to be perfictly lined up and going straight which is tricky when it bends at each end. I always went down to 2nd from then on.

ps: when I was in Brissie a mate took the roofs of a few cars on the top deck of a 8 car carier

[Zed]

gutted.... glad to hear you are ok though. Wasnt there another case where a double decker full of revellers did the same thing in the UK? only in that case the top level was populated by people:sick:
Auckland Southern Motorway several years back, a northbound double decker bus with an open roof was transporting a party of people into town when a guy died. As the bus was going underneath the Penrose overbridge the guy was taken out because he was standing up on the top deck, possibly on one of the seats...horrible way to go! :weep:

All those type bridges have height measurment signs on them, or they should have, and any good truck driver should know his load height surely?


Zed

[Skyryder]

Not long ago I was down below the Waimak bridge fishing when I noticed that the shingle road that passes below the road bridge had been blocked off. Found out later that a truck trailering a loader passed below taking out one of the concrete girder supports. Must have cost thousands to fix.

Skyryder

[maybe]

Wouldn,t think it would be hard for the Police to find the truck......you have the company name cops should be able to tell by damage caused to the vehicle unless they all hit bridges.

[LB]

Eddie, the company must know where their trucks are at any given time, so they must know which one it was. We'll have a look on the way to/from work to see if there is a height sign.

You're bloody lucky that you got off as lightly as you did - imagine if he'd had say a load of timber or something and that bits of the load came back to hit you.....

Must have been scary for you - you wouldn't have realised what was happening for a few seconds.

[Firefight]

Ohhh i'd say that he would have knowen and if he did then he should of stoped to check his load, but if he dident relise then you cant blame him for not stopping.

Does this bridge have a hight warning sign above it?? If not then the driver would not expect to of hit it, if so then that means that it is lower than the legal max hight of a truck (4.250m) and his truck would not of been higher than this so he could not of hit it. But he obvisuly did so something isent right.

I once hit number 1 tunnel on the Kaikoura cost and I sure as hell felt it but as it is a one way and is rounded at the top means that you have to be perfictly lined up and going straight which is tricky when it bends at each end. I always went down to 2nd from then on.

ps: when I was in Brissie a mate took the roofs of a few cars on the top deck of a 8 car carier


Law states 4.25m or any leesor height that is required to clear..etc etc, so in fact there is no defense, have hit Marton rail bridge myself a few years ago, and had a long debate with CVIU cop, got off a huge fine, manily because the bridge remained intact, My advice would be to contact LInfox as well as cops, can get you the name of Linfox transport manager here in AK if you want,EB pm me.


F/F

[Ms Piggy]

Wow! You are very bloody lucky it didn't take you out with all the debris! :eek5: I'm sure they'll have no trouble tracking him down though. I mean all it would take is a cop in the next town to look out for that Trucking company & I'm sure the damage would be more than visible to the naked eye.

[NordieBoy]

I once hit number 1 tunnel on the Kaikoura cost and I sure as hell felt it but as it is a one way and is rounded at the top means that you have to be perfictly lined up and going straight which is tricky when it bends at each end.

They have cut some rectangular notches out of the tunnels now about where a trailer would have clipped the tops :)

Well I assume they were cut out - May have just been a big truck. :eek:

[dangerous]

They have cut some rectangular notches out of the tunnels now about where a trailer would have clipped the tops :)

Well I assume they were cut out - May have just been a big truck. :eek:

umm yeah! you may have seen it as the co is/was? based in Nelson, a 8 wheeler over length max hight 16L V8 Nissin with Furniture express on it :bye:

[FROSTY]

guys um if it was a lindfox truck thiose are solid top curtain siders.
In other words built to be under the legal max height.
so if it clipped the bridge then there was something very wrong
-Ive heard of roading companies resealing the road and raising it so much trucks no longer cleared bridges.

[wkid_one]

guys um if it was a lindfox truck thiose are solid top curtain siders.
In other words built to be under the legal max height.
so if it clipped the bridge then there was something very wrong
-Ive heard of roading companies resealing the road and raising it so much trucks no longer cleared bridges.
Not all standard sizes tho Frosty - coulda been an outta towna who came the Gorge way in and going out the taka's.

All I know is the guy will be gutted for the damage done!

[toads]

me and the kids were on our way home last night, and came around a corner to see a logging truck on our side of the road, with it's laden trailer on two wheels, just on the point of balance, scared the crap out of us all, it lurched frighteneningly then went back onto it's own side of the road, fortunately I was doing about 70km at the time, had I been doing the usual 100, I would have ended up as a statistic, I was too busy watching his tipping trailer too notice his number plate unfortunately, very bloody dangerous

[dangerous]

toads: Did you at least take note of the markings/colours on the truck? so as you can at least make the Co of that truck awere of the situation.

Unfortunatly its more often than not the employers them selfs putting the pressure on the drivers, while this does not give the driver an excuse for his driving like your experiance which is toatly unaceptable, the blame cant be throughen at 'all' truck drivers.

I went back to my main profesion because of the pressures put on me as a driver, as much as I enjoyed line haul work which is getting to see the greater part of our country and being paid for it, 20hr days is not good, and I might add that the law only allows 14hr on duty and 11hr driving so untill something is done about these working conditions and the darft log book system then we will see more inserdents and no doubt accidents to come.

ps: I might add however there are profesional drivers out there that should not be behind a wheel.

[Holy Roller]

My bus was 4.2 high 50mm below max height and it scraped on a few bridges, they usually has a height restriction sign posted. The thing was gas station canopies, especially the lights that hung lower, took a couple of these out up north. That was even with a guide indicating it was ok. ( usually the station attendant) Always took it slow passing under rail over passes like going into Whangarei, just fitting under but not got under the one by the radio station, had to go the long way round.

[LB]

Eddie: the Normandale o/bridge on the motorway has no height signs. I couldn't see any signs of the truck hitting it (though it's dark when we commute these days!) - was it the motorway bridge, or the one on Pharazyn Street?

[merv]

If I remember rightly from the days I was dealing with such things, vehicles are limited to a height of 4.25m and all bridges less than 4.4m had to be signposted and have yellow stripes painted on the bottom edges. So if they aren't signposted there should be at least 150mm clearance. The checking of heights and posting of such had to be done annually too.

[Eddieb]

was it the motorway bridge, or the one on Pharazyn Street?

Sorry, should have said, it was the one on Pharazyn street.

[rodgerd]

Unfortunatly its more often than not the employers them selfs putting the pressure on the drivers, while this does not give the driver an excuse for his driving like your experiance which is toatly unaceptable, the blame cant be throughen at 'all' truck drivers.


Do the laws around this sting the company harder than the driver, the way the liquor laws do? Or does the shit land all on the driver?

[jrandom]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Te Atatu motorway overbridge on this thread yet - a few weeks ago, a truck carrying heavy machinery of some sort that was poking up too far took out the concrete girders over the southbound NW motorway lanes.

The overbridge was restricted to three lanes for more than a fortnight while they reinforced the damaged areas. Traffic pileups were bloody awful the whole time.

[Deano]

Do the laws around this sting the company harder than the driver, the way the liquor laws do? Or does the shit land all on the driver?

Liquor laws now place the onus on the duty manager and the bar staff themselves. For vicarious liability to be proven it would need to be shown that the employer/owner (licensee) either new about an offence occurring, or had not provided the manager/barstaff with adequate policies or resources to enable the barstaff/manager to carry out their functions under the SOL Act.

Vicarious liability for a trucking firm (for actions of its staff) would, I believe be much easier to prove. In fact a driver wronly fuelled up with petrol instead of diesel at a 24hr (unattended) gas station, and ended up emptying all the petrol to a stormwater drain. The company was prosecuted under vicarious liability. (possibly because the driver had no instructions from the company on what actions to take in that situation).

[scroter]

I think someone has covered this. Linfox trucks are all enclosed and are the max legal hieght 4.25m. as roadworkers reseal the gap gets smaller and smaller. it should still be 4.25m at least thoughif trucks are using it but 4.25m isnt really enough if you hit a bump your stuffed. still as a fellow truck driver not stopping is unexcusable.

[merv]

My game was railway bridges and as far as we could see trucks only stopped if they got jammed and we caught them. If they wrecked a bridge and were able to keep going and thought no one had seem them they didn't care going by the number of bridges we found damaged without any notification. This seems to be what the Linfox truck has done because from the description given that driver would have known he was scraping the Normandale bridge and he didn't stop. Did he report it to the Lower Hutt Council? - I don't know.

[Firefight]

[QUOTE=merv]My game was railway bridges and as far as we could see trucks only stopped if they got jammed and we caught them. If they wrecked a bridge and were able to keep going and thought no one had seem them they didn't care going by the number of bridges we found damaged without any notification.

Merv, we may have crossed paths, 1986 ish , I hit the Marton railway bridge at 0200hours, do you recall meeting with a CVIU cop and a young truck driver
white T line inter and 4 axle trailer, the load was frezzer panels for a cool store in palmy, did not appearto damage bridge, but cop and I waited for an NZR engineer guy to come and check bridge was that you ?

Firefight

[merv]

[QUOTE=merv]My game was railway bridges and as far as we could see trucks only stopped if they got jammed and we caught them. If they wrecked a bridge and were able to keep going and thought no one had seem them they didn't care going by the number of bridges we found damaged without any notification.

Merv, we may have crossed paths, 1986 ish , I hit the Marton railway bridge at 0200hours, do you recall meeting with a CVIU cop and a young truck driver
white T line inter and 4 axle trailer, the load was frezzer panels for a cool store in palmy, did not appearto damage bridge, but cop and I waited for an NZR engineer guy to come and check bridge was that you ?

Firefight

I was safely ensconced as a head office waller and we had area guys to go out and do most of that on-site stuff so it was probably someone from our Wanganui office (long since closed). If you had a name I would have known the guy though.

[Firefight]

I was safely ensconced as a head office waller and we had area guys to go out and do most of that on-site stuff so it was probably someone from our Wanganui office (long since closed). If you had a name I would have known the guy though.

sorry Merv too long ago to remember his name, matter ended there, as no damage to your bridge,rooted the tarpaulin and put a nice crease down the top of the frezzer panel, just had to argue with CVIU re ticket,

F/F

[dangerous]

My game was railway bridges


but 4.25m isnt really enough if you hit a bump your stuffed. still as a fellow truck driver not stopping is unexcusable.


Yeah like the one at Sedden (south of Blenhiem) The thing I used to drive was 4.200m high (unladen) and that bridge is very bouncy. I was warned to take it very slowly as hitting the top was a possibility, never did tunnels was my speciality.

Man those old road/rail bridges are awesome, its a pitty they are slowly all being removed.

[merv]

Man those old road/rail bridges are awesome, its a pitty they are slowly all being removed.

Interesting riding the VFR over those ones on the coast - which side of the railway lines to stay on? and watch it as you cross over them when they are wet.

Seddon bridge being a double decker is easy compared to the others. That's up for replacement shortly isn't it too?

[dangerous]

Interesting riding the VFR over those ones on the coast - which side of the railway lines to stay on? and watch it as you cross over them when they are wet.

Seddon bridge being a double decker is easy compared to the others. That's up for replacement shortly isn't it too?

I always woundered about those ones on the west coast, what happens if a train shows up in frount of you half way across :mellow:
And as for the sedden one I woundered there, what would happen if a train passed above me in the truck.... remembering that I only had 50 odd mm clearance :wacko:

[LB]

Interesting riding the VFR over those ones on the coast - which side of the railway lines to stay on? and watch it as you cross over them when they are wet.



Bugsplat and Matthewt - any comments?? :innocent:

[Deano]

Street Services at Council had no idea about the 'incident', so if the cops turned up they didn't consider it worthy of a mention. Probably had to race off an earn some speeding ticket money to pay for more LTSA beureacrats....

If they want more info about it I will PM you EddieB..

[merv]

I always woundered about those ones on the west coast, what happens if a train shows up in frount of you half way across :mellow:
And as for the sedden one I woundered there, what would happen if a train passed above me in the truck.... remembering that I only had 50 odd mm clearance :wacko:

Don't worry on the Coast the trains are only the slow ones on the Hokitika Branch and they stop and make sure the bridge is clear and stop the traffic before they proceed.

Seddon bridge no worries except in the old days when trains didn't have retention toilets.

[Mongoose]

Don't worry on the Coast the trains are only the slow ones on the Hokitika Branch and they stop and make sure the bridge is clear and stop the traffic before they proceed.




Dont know if i would totally rely on this advice, ie to stretch it out to *All* trains on the Coast are those slow ones. Some of those coal trains would take a hell of a lot of stopping!!

[merv]

Dont know if i would totally rely on this advice, ie to stretch it out to *All* trains on the Coast are those slow ones. Some of those coal trains would take a hell of a lot of stopping!!

Yeah but they don't run over the road rail bridges which are only on the Hokitika Branch.

[bgd]

The Blackwall Tunnel is a major arterial route under the Thames in east London. The tunnel was built by the Victorians so is too low for many of todays trucks. Height limits are well sign posted with bars that hang down to prevent over height vehicles getting in.

In the early 90s a Euro driver ignored all the warnings and drove his truck into the tunnel. Realising he was a little high he thought the best approach was to carry on and force his way through. Of course he got jammed solid. The result was some of the worst traffic jams London has ever seen. People were stuck for over 8 hours. It happened in the morning rush hour and the roads around us didn't clear until after 7 in the evening.

There is some justice in the world. It turns out the truck was carrying a major shipment of drugs and was being tailed by customs hoping to catch the whole gang. They had to arrest the driver at the tunnel and he was jailed.

[dangerous]

Dont know if i would totally rely on this advice, ie to stretch it out to *All* trains on the Coast are those slow ones. Some of those coal trains would take a hell of a lot of stopping!!

Yeah, and what about that movie that was filmed on the w/c with Temra what ever is his name Morrison in it where his Mk3 Z car shit its self on the bridge as the train was comming...... he jumped over into the river and the Mk3 became a hood ornament on the train.

[merv]

The Blackwall Tunnel is a major arterial route under the Thames in east London. The tunnel was built by the Victorians so is too low for many of todays trucks. Height limits are well sign posted with bars that hang down to prevent over height vehicles getting in.

In the early 90s a Euro driver ignored all the warnings and drove his truck into the tunnel. Realising he was a little high he thought the best approach was to carry on and force his way through. Of course he got jammed solid. The result was some of the worst traffic jams London has ever seen. People were stuck for over 8 hours. It happened in the morning rush hour and the roads around us didn't clear until after 7 in the evening.

There is some justice in the world. It turns out the truck was carrying a major shipment of drugs and was being tailed by customs hoping to catch the whole gang. They had to arrest the driver at the tunnel and he was jailed.

He'd win the dickhead of the year prize eh!

[FROSTY]

hey talking about bridges--Has anyone ever stopped on the harbour bridge when its a little bit windy?
The darn thing moves up and down and Im sure side to side.

[Mongoose]

Yeah but they don't run over the road rail bridges which are only on the Hokitika Branch.

Yep, Yer right, was not disagreeing with you just pointing out that them there coal trains would take one hell of a stopping, and there are quite a few railway crossings that look all innocent and little used just waiting to nab an unwary biker.