OOOPPS!
 

Well here’s what happens when you drive too fast and don’t have “clearance awareness”
(Remember it’s not always about how high the load is)
This driver and pilot car failed to take into account the former rail road grade at this town in Iowa today, the speed limit here is also 20 mph, if you look at the skid marks behind the tractor you can surmise that the driver was going much faster than that (I’ve seen trucks easily going 40 mph through here) pretty stupid considering there’s a stop light at the bottom of this hill.
When I took these photos the driver had already backed up about 10-15 feet to free the tower from the road, look closely in one of the pics and you can see where the tower scraped the pavement.


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:shock: Wow haha, I couldn't picture myself or anyone actually being able to turn. Swing wide and pray? haha. =P

There's one intersection in Cary, NC, where the private drive from a housing development intersects into Cary Parkway, and there's a real awkward hump right there... All these moving companies which had those single drop trailers with the utility boxes underneath (Bekins, Mayflower, etc.) used to get stuck on that thing all the time when their trailers would get grounded right there.
As for this particular incident, I have to say I'm a bit surprised. I always figured such specialized carriers, or, at least, their flag car escorts, would know the routes well enough to be aware of this beforehand.

Beats the guy I saw hauling one of those huge (100 foot easy) fan blades for wind power. He kinds forgot about his cargo and tried to take a cloverleaf.....

You guys are not going to believe this…they did it again! :shock:
I went through town today and there was another tower stuck in the same spot!
They had moved before I got my camera out so no pics.
Don’t these idiots communicate? :roll:
There’s a road 5 miles to the East that is straight and flat (I did see a tower section parked there, a local oversize driver lives there I’m told)

Sounds like he needs to cut down on fatty foods then. :D

These "idiots" are probably following the route given by the state on their permits. I don't care if there is a road 1 mile away and it is as flat as a board. Unless your permit says that road is on your route you STAY OFF of it. Getting caught off of the route your permit says is a BIG PROBLEM. It makes your permit NULL AND VOID. Then you have a BFP. You can't believe the routes they give out. Two trucks going from the same place to the same place may have two different routes. Why? Ask the state, because our permit department can't figure it out. And don't these people communicate. The tower hauling is getting competitive. We had a dedicated haul pulling large stainless steel tanks. Till we were told they were bringing in another "Specialized" carrier that would do it cheaper. Out of the 10 tanks they hauled they dented 3, lost one off the truck and tore a 10' gash in one just trying to getting out of the gate! We got that account back and the rate went up.

Gotta go the way the permit says. Some states will not allow oversize loads to convoy so that is one reason for the trucks being on two different roads, second the permits might be prepared by different officers.

Re: OOOPPS!
 

( Surmise this ) The skid marks are not from driving too fast...

Re: OOOPPS!
 

But what about the ones in his Fruit of the Loom's?

Re: OOOPPS!
 

That most likely didn't cause any skidmarks in his shorts but I'll bet there were some choice words from the cab.

As was previously mentioned you do not go off route, on the other hand the trucking co.'s driver should have seen and understood the road condidtion. A good pilot car driver should also have seen the hump and alerted the driver.

The problem is finding a pilot car service which is worth a damn. Not that they aren't out there.. they just get mired in the mass with the ones which aren't.
But, regardless of what the pilot car services does or fail to do, it doesn't diminish the responsibility of the driver to be aware of their surroundings. I really don't see anyone who operates a lowboy or comparable equipment moving system (in terms of having so little ground clearance) wouldn't have alarm bells going off in their head as soon as they saw a sign indicating a railroad crossing. If you're not sure, you stop, get out, and examine it for yourself. It may leave some people behind you honking their horns at you, but it's much less of an inconvenience for them then it would be if they had to wait while you were grounded out and stuck in the middle of the road.

These guys could be smart and alert someone that the route is not passable in it's current state and not move anymore until they get a better route.

When Coors was bringing their Shenandoah, Va plant online they had to move about 40-50 large brew containers that were about 20 ft in diameter and 80 foot or so in length. Looked like the same type of system above that hauled them the 100 miles from their storage lot. They actually did a dry run with one before they moved them all and they moved them at night only. That dry run told them where the problem area's would be and when they started moving them 5 at a time they did not have a single slowdown. In fact they were ahead of schedule each move so much the convoy of police, trucks, linesman and VDOT would stop and get breakfast just down the street from my house and chill for 2 hours because they could not go across their one mountain climb on Rt. 33 in Greene Co until after school started.

The state routes you... TRUE
You MUST remain on your route.... TRUE
The driver should have seen this... TRUE
The pilot car should have known about it.... TRUE
HOWEVER

Back when I pulled oversize, a second load was sent out the same day, but not at the same time, and even a third and fourth. By the time the information got back to dispatch, all four trucks encountered the obsticle. You WERE allowed up to five miles off your route before it was null and void. But it was never clear if that was for fueling and parking overnight or to bypass something like this.

I once got hung up with a double-drop trailer in the driveway of the customer. There was another truck in front of me, and I didn't see the ridge of dirt across. It's possible that the driver of the tower was not able to see the condition clearly because of other traffic in front of him.

And as for the pilot car driver, do you have any idea how many of them there are? If it had been the SAME pilot car driver, I would have little doubt that it would have been communicated to the truck, but each one encountered this individually, and NO, it may not have been communicated to each of them in time to prevent it from happening again.

Explain this one. You have 4 loads. The first two measure 13' 11" and have high-poles. The third and fourth are exactly at 13' 6". Under an overpass, the two high-poles and loads pass under without incident. The third load, of legal height hits the overpass. The fourth load, of course, stopped before he got to it. When we all got out and looked at it, we could not understand how it was possible for him to hit it. He had clearance. He should have made it.

While we were looking at it, a truck went over the top, and we saw verticle movement in the beams of the overpass. I suppose we should have gotten out of there, but we stayed and measured the movement when the next truck went through. A FULL 13" THAT IT CAME DOWN when it had a load going over it. Since then, the state has repaired the overpass, and paid for the damage to the load.

Having never hauled OD loads you may all consider me naive of the rules (but now educated, a little)
I can understand how the route was planned, on paper this is the most direct route (sr 63) and there’s no indication of the old crossing being an issue, this is also the first and second load of this nature that I’ve ever heard of taking this road, the OD driver who lives just to the East may “remind” those who issue permits that Hwy 63 has a low clearance hazard and gets a variance or perhaps he just goes around because of his knowledge of the local roads.

WOW! :shock: