Despite warning signs, it seems that rarely a week goes by without an oversized truck entering a restricted parkway and smashing into a low bridge. Nearly 200 trucks a year hit bridges and overpasses statewide, according to the state DOT, with more than 70 percent of those occurring in this region, AAA New York said in a report released this week.
“Westchester County parkways are the worst statewide for these types of crashes. These incidents cause massive traffic delays and impose significant costs on taxpayers,” said AAA New York spokesman Robert Sinclair.
The latest one happened Wednesday, when a tractor-trailer carrying frozen steaks slammed into the Manville Road bridge on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Pleasantville, forcing the parkway to be closed for more than six hours.
State Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti said this week he was proposing legislation to require height restriction barriers on the entrances to some Westchester parkways. Last month, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer urged the federal Dept. of Transportation to require GPS devices used in trucks to alert drivers when they enter a restricted parkway.
Officials have said out-of-state truck drivers using GPS devices often wind up on the parkways without realizing it.
Tell us: What do you think could be done to stop so many trucks from entering these roadways and causing accidents? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.
(Crews tend to a tractor-trailer damaged when it struck the Manville Road overpass on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Pleasantville Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012. The truck was carrying frozen steaks, police said. The accident closed the northbound parkway for more than six hours. Lee Higgins/The Journal News.)
6 Comments
It isn’t easy for most people to navigate the traffic, fight time, and get on a sechdule that dares you to not get a ticket passing a red light camera or go off a so called less traveled road. Enter the Parkway, the Hutchinson River Parkway, The Bronx River Parkway, which ever parkway it may be it is not entirely safe so to say. Just ask any trucker who has gotten himself stranded under the bridge. It is not only a mistake of huge porportion, but also one of grand financial total. After the tow truck and police have to show up, and other objections may also have to be met, off loading the truck, highly inconvienient, but could be profitable to those who must help in the situation. Then deflating the tires, I know they can’t raise the bridge, but who knows in the future of engineering that may be a option. A raise the bridge button, that would ease the traffic congestion caused by such mishap. Even in the event of trying to be humourus, there is no humor in being tied up and no humor in having a time delay of up to two or more hours, and definitely no picnic for people that have to get someplace, whether it be work or an appointment or a crying child or worse baby in the car. Where is the consideration for those that are where they need to be, except for a truck that has GPS that isn’t necessairly correct, or time constraint given to him or her, that states ASAP. These gnarls in traffic aren’t only costly, but often show again and agian, how time mangement is not adequately looked at as being a serious tool in planning.
There’s nothing new about this problem, as trucks have been hitting the overpasses for decades. And the truckers certainly aren’t intentionally ramming the bridges, which leads to the inescapable conclusion that the warning signs, while present, are completely inadequate. The existing small signs that say “Passenger Cars Only” aren’t sufficent, especially since they’re usually alongside other signs that the driver is trying to read and process at the same time. We need big, well-lit signs at EVERY entrance ramp that say something along the lines of “NO TRUCKS – LOW OVERPASSES”.
Take some of my toll money and use it to construct overhead signs that are the same height as the bridges on entrance ramps to the parkways noting Low Overpasses. Truckers have really rough jobs – I know I couldn’t do it – and this might help. My two cents….
Build a goalpost-like framework at every entrance to the Parkway and hang chains down that would scrape across a truck’s roof… alerting the driver that he’s too high for the bridges.
3 pieces of iron consructed at the entrance of each ramp should solve the problem. If you cant get under the entrance ramp iron hieght restriction bridge….oh well. SUV’s with top carriers should still be lower than an 18 wheeler.
As I understand it, truckers can potentially take a load from any point in the country, to any point in the country.
I can’t believe that it’s that hard to pass it along to all of the CDL schools that train truckers to remind them about the NY area parkway overpass problem. Even if they get their CDL in California, nothing’s stopping them from one day having to deliver a load to the NY metro area or pass through it.
Putting a “don’t take the Parkways” message on their truck manifests if they’re NY-bound might not be a bad idea, either.
And it should be emphasized that the rule isn’t some silly arbitrary thing – there is a substantial risk of catastrophic damage, injury and traffic jams. I think people are more willing to comply with a rule or law if they understand that there is a very good reason for its existence.