[PR] Truck drivers - Know your load height and bridge heights!

Victor

http://www.iarnrodeireann.ie/news_centre/general_news.asp?action=view&news_id=70

Truck drivers - Know your load height and bridge heights! by Infrastructure Department

Please click here for detailed information on bridge heights around the Iarnród Éireann network, and information on how to receive maps and further information to assist road hauliers, and prevent bridge strikes.

crosstownk

Hey - thats a good idea! I don't drive a truck much but I'd like to have that if I used one regularly. I suppose eventually a truck driver would get to know these things. Not all as as recent incident proves.

AMurphy

A million years ago when I resided in Limerick. I came across the top part of a Hy-Mac tracked digger sitting on the road, not too from Franky Hogans, on the Dub road, where a rail bridge crossed the road. A few feet further on was the tracked part on a flatbed trailer. The driver, was taken off to hospital with several broken ribs I am sure. Moved the bridge enough to halt trains for a few weeks.

I am told of a story, again in Limerick, but do not know whether it is true or false.
Apparently someone learning to drive CIE busses failed to pass the bus under a little cross over bridge that is on the Limerick side of the the river Shannon. Not too far from what used to be the "Income Tax Office"

Seth Brundle

Barry Kenny was on the radio with George Hook yesterday speaking about this.
As he said, it really is driver stupidity that causes this.
However a Darwin award should go to the trucker who got stuck on Dublins Quays. When he was released, he crossed the river and got stuck under the bridge on the other side!

Big Nelly

A while ago a bus driver in Dublin was heading off and had a double decker instead of the single ones which he drove every other day. Took his usual route and took the whole second floor off the bus at a bridge. Said he forgot he was in double decker. Lucky nobody was on board, think he was going to do a bus run if I remember?

Also wasnt there a motorway a year or so ago where they had to shut down one side to fix the bridge after some truck had caused damage to it and had drove on:eek:

prospect

Big Nelly wrote:

Also wasnt there a motorway a year or so ago where they had to shut down one side to fix the bridge after some truck had caused damage to it and had drove on:eek:

The Rathcoole Bridge on the N7.
The truck was carrying one of those big JCB digger thingies, Hymac??

Big Nelly

prospect wrote:

The Rathcoole Bridge on the N7.
The truck was carrying one of those big JCB digger thingies, Hymac??

yeah thats the one, it was the N7. Cant remember what hit it but just seen on news there where asking for witnesses.

Rovi

In spite of all the bleating about banning 'supercube' trailers and the danger they pose to bridges, etc, most of these bridge strike incidents appear to involve conventional trailers with unusual loads.
At least the supercubes are a fixed height and the driver should know this and plan his route accordingly; it's the lads who spend most of their time hauling regular sized stuff and are one day presented with something tall (digger, etc) and head off on their usual route without allowing for the unusual height that get into trouble.

It's not always the driver's fault though; a fair few years ago in Portlaoise (home to 2 lowish railway bridges), the County Council did a great job laying a lovely new surface under one of the bridges one evening. 6-8 inches thick.
No-one thought to change the signs or tell anyone else.
Guess what happened early the next morning?

Victor

Big Nelly wrote:

A while ago a bus driver in Dublin was heading off and had a double decker instead of the single ones which he drove every other day. Took his usual route and took the whole second floor off the bus at a bridge. Said he forgot he was in double decker. Lucky nobody was on board, think he was going to do a bus run if I remember?

I don't know of that instance but there was a case of an empty bus hitting a bridge at the back of Pearse Station, because of a diversion.

DubOnHoliday

The Irish Road Haulage assoc says that Iarnroad Eireann should intstall lasers before brigdes and stop lights etc..... why?... its not the the bridges that are getting smaller , its the trucks getting bigger if the IHA want that, they have to pay for it. Otherwise the people that get stuck under the bridge should have to walk up and down o'connell street with a sandwich board announcing their claim to fame.

AMurphy

Rovi wrote:

It's not always the driver's fault though; a fair few years ago in Portlaoise (home to 2 lowish railway bridges), the County Council did a great job laying a lovely new surface under one of the bridges one evening. 6-8 inches thick.
No-one thought to change the signs or tell anyone else.
Guess what happened early the next morning?

Unmapped Bridges;
A few years back a guy hauling a large pipe cylinder on a flatbed, got all the permits he needed etc. However, someone forgot about the scaffolding for a small overpass under construction, which woudl be well below the normal bridge underside.
He proceeded to bring down several long 12" tall "I" beams onto the highway. Fortunately nobody was killed with falling metal bars, but a few cars ran into them before they have time to shut down the highway.