A trucker is claiming that it was his GPS’s fault that his truck got stuck on a pedestrian bridge in a Milwaukee park last week. Whether or not his GPS told him to turn in the wrong place however, it should have been fairly clear that he was driving where he shouldn’t be.
It wasn’t until he had driven a significant distance on a narrow, often unpaved pedestrian footpath in a city park that the 50 year-old driver realized he might be in the wrong place. He had managed to drive over and damage an incredibly narrow pedestrian bridge and knock in to tree limbs before getting stuck.
According to the curator of a nearby museum, it’s incredible that the first bridge he crossed didn’t collapse under the weight of the 32,000lbs truck. It has been closed to car traffic since the 1960s when it as declared unsafe for vehicles.
Given the very real danger of a bridge collapse, it wasn’t possible to just drive out the way he came. A crane had come and lift the truck to safety. Luckily, the trailer wasn’t loaded at the time, or the incident could have been much worse.
Ultimately, the driver walked away with almost $580 in fines and has been cited for reckless driving and failure to obey road signs.
The best part? The company motto on the side of the truck proudly reads “We drive a fine line.”
Next Story: New Survey For FMCSA Driver Training Rule
Time for a career change. Some things must be obvious in order to drive a semi. It can’t be at the end where the sign reads this is the twlight zone.
Career change? But, he’s just gotten started!
I have to admit, I got jammed-up a few times in my first year of driving, where it took me a while to get turned around. Nothing as stupid as this though. The thing about GPS, that some people seem not to understand, is that you have to use the same common sense you use without a GPS. Pay attention to the signs!
this is what’s on OUR ROAD WAYS
Welcome to the New World truckers. You cannot fix stupid and big companies are actively recruiting STUPID people to work cheap! Just look around at truck stops and off and on ramps to see the damage these IDIOTS have caused by figuring , if the Hood Ornament gets around the curve the rest of the rig will too!!
This guy was already 50. I don’t get how this stupid survived so long.
You would think during the initial training process, (you know, on the page that asks your ne, address, phone etc…) There would be a simple question asking, “Do you have COMMON sense?)
While all of the driving schools (who are such professionals) are teaching someone how to change gears they should also be teaching a new driver to READ A MAP, BAN all GPS devices with the exception of Truck with Hazmat GPS Units. This is just a story of a rebellious driver who may be thinking, ” I’ll show them”.
And we are on the road with these folks everyday….. We should be getting “Hazard Pay”.
I don’t know what school this moron went to, but the one i went to spent an entire day on going over the Motor Carrier’s atlas and all the info in it. I fervently avoid GPS routing units of all kinds because it’s gotten so many of my colleagues in trouble and it’s so much cheaper in the long run to use the map and a little common sense.
I use a GPS everyday. Of course the device will send you into A low bridge truck, restricted areas ect. But with that said it is common sense and keeping your eyes wide open. No need to band anything unless you can band stupidity. This person should not be driving a truck. Really if he or she can’t see the difference between a pedestrian walkway and a roadway he is a dumb ass and needs to be driving a scooter.
That’s right! You still have to read the signs, just like you would without GPS. I started using GPS in 2009. I won’t drive without it anymore.
Of course it will help you find the customer, but where I really find it helpful is in locating a good place to eat or to shutdown on my route. And everytime I do find a good place to park or eat, I save the location so I can easily plan my route next time. Good eating is getting harder and harder to find, what, with only a handful of corporate truck stops to choose from anymore. It’s also helpful in finding the smaller fuel stops.
The other thing I like about GPS is it gives you a pretty accurate ETA. I can always see how much time I have left, which is especially helpful with electronic logs.
Not defending this driver but the company just updated our navigation system. It had caused me to get into places not ment for a truck. I would call the police to get me out. Mine haven’t been to this extreme but it happens. The worse I have encountered is sending or trying 2 send me down street not made for trucks, dead ends still telling me to turn when there is no possible way, or our famous one going in circles when we correct ut tells us we are out of route. When I started getting hung up I bought a 300 truckers gps. Its now has keep me from getting hung up because of company gps. True our GPS suck it could have told him to take that route because at one point in time cars did travel that way. But every body was not born with common sense.
Your problem is the same as this other driver’s problem, and sadly, mine as well, at times. COMMON SENSE involves recognizing when something is wrong and fixing it, not depending on a broken device to repeatedly get you stuck or lost. 24 years ago, I learned to PLAN MY ROUTE before I leave. Since I got a GPS a few years ago, I’ve become complacent and lazy, and it regularly misguides me. Plan your route before you leave, and use your GPS as a timer, telling you roughly when you should arrive. Don’t depend on a system that the manufacturer won’t spend the time updating. You’re only getting the information that other inexperienced drivers are entering into the system. It’s a case of the blind leading the blind. My GPS was much more accurate BEFORE I did the updates.
A perfect example of why not rely 100% on a GPS. Many reasons for it not giving correct directions. From improper input from city and state engineers to a glitch in transmission of data and 10o’s of other reasons. Common sense and the ability to think for themselves should never be replaced by electronics. Here’s your sign driver.
Hint- Mac 20 , WRITTEN DIRECTIONS
So much for technology solving the problems for us all.
This is a perfect example of why there will not be truck drivers much longer! The more of these reports you see in the media, the faster the general public will accept driver less trucks. The technology is already out there. Thanks to idiots like this guy and the mega carriers they work for we will all be out of work in 10 years.
How do you think these driverless trucks will get around? The same technology that dumbs us down will be causing all sorts of trouble for these “smart” trucks. Unless highways and cities are modified/built around the new technology, there will always be a need for us. I would love to see a computer try to navigate through New York City. Crappy roads, construction, rain/ice/snow, & 4-wheelers themselves will cause significant problems. I don’t see it happening.
Well they automated trucks coming out in the future where they dont even need someone in the truck so that would be something to see too.
Well maybe it will get better…..Driverless Big trucks and a the few Professionals left in the industry mingling with them over the road….now that would be great to see. (( after all the unprofessionals are weeded Out!!!))
This is the problem that results from relying solely on GPS units…and at the age of 50, I presume the guy should know better. Obviously not.
I’m 32. Been at this for four years now. My entire first year and most of my second year I had no truck GPS unit at all, so I got real used to trip planning the old-fashioned way: my trucker’s atlas. I don’t even solely rely on the local in/around directions I get from my dispatcher and/or consignees because often they can be wrong, too. I do have my own GPS now, plus the NaviGo in my Qualcomm EOBR. But evn then I don’t solely rely on those. I take what route it gives me and compare it to my atlas, and if I see a route that isn’t an STAA marked truck route, I start asking questions (sometimes local truck routes don’t show up in the atlas). And even then, I pull out my handy dandy little smartphone and get on Google maps and start looking at where I’m (routed to), to get an idea of what I’ll be dealing with. Google Earth street view is a great little tool, too–especially if I see overpasses along my route, I can get on street view and see if I see an overhead clearance sign to see if I can fit underneath. I’ve saved myself a LOT of trouble by doing that…and chances are, had this guy done that, he’d have seen he would have been heading into a park and known not to go that way.
The point of all that is this: we as truckers have many tools available to us to use–but they’re all just that, tools. I use all at my disposal, put them together and then come up with the best route plan(s) I can. And even then, one still needs to watch for the local posted warnings and restrictions. It’s not hard to run into issues–but it’s hard to solve them once they occur. And in this guy’s case, costly. But it sure is easy to plan smartly before ever moving, especially if it means preventing instances like this.
Only a fool follows a GPS system blindly. In this case, and others where drivers are failing to take responsiblity for their actions, this was a driverless vehicle. With all of the tools available to drivers today, GPS, google maps, cell phones, laptops and good old paper maps this was just stupidity on the drivers part.
Come on really? ? Like you never drove over a foot bridge into a park.???
Pepsi Generation trucker. They probably can’t even fire him out of fear of being sued.
The only time I ever use my GPS for directional assistance is when doing city drops at night. As my night vision isn’t the best, I have trouble reading the (too small) signs, so the GPS lets me know a couple of blocks in advance where to turn. However, I do my route planning in advance, and know which streets I am supposed to take, so it could never lead me down the wrong roads.
I can’t believe there are still people who obviously don’t bother to do proper route planning (i.e. paper maps).
I just feel shame and embarrassment for our industry when I hear stories like this one. The general public loves to ridicule and despise commercial vehicles, and this just adds gas to the fire.
We had a (thankfully former) driver who took a 63 ton load of fuel over a 9 ton bridge. The truck route bridge was about 6 blocks past this one, but he was either too lazy or stupid to find it. I guess the signs reading ‘no trucks’, ‘9 ton weight limit’, and ‘all trucks must turn here’ should have been flashing neon colors.
So this guy, ( won’t call him a driver ,that would be insulting to those that are) blames his GPS Isn’t that the same as saying Hi, I am stupid, My GPS is too ,It told me to drive here and it is the boss.
I also do not have the ability to think for my self and reading a Rand McNally map is too complicated and it cannot talk to me. Besides I never learned how. Pretty colors though and some pictures of trucks in it too.
Was he looking for a customer, A rest area. A toilet, A Starbucks?
The more we hear of this kind of special stupid the more I think the Truck Driving School mills are producing them by the boat load. Is stupidity a requirement now for new entry level drivers.? Is this the result of some new test by the FMCSA. There seems to be more of this kind of stupid than the drivers that dumped the rear axles off the road into the ditch turning out of some truck stops. That used to be very common.
Now they blame the GPS for special kind of stupid. . Do drivers like this have a problem lacing their shoes together when putting them on ? We all make mistakes but this kind is the extreme. No excuse, No reason. We never hear of a good reason for actions like this. Always an excuse.
I don’t think using a gps makes for bad truck driving. I use two gps and my trusty atlas. One of my gps is required by my company, the other is insurance it has only truck drivable routing real time traffic updates as well as weight limit warnings. I have twice this month put both aside when a road was closed and used my atlas. All are tools of the trade. This driver who drove down a pedestrian path obviously is mental or to stupid to drive. And I agree this company got him to drive cheap so they got what they pad for stupid is as stupid dose.
This is what .35 cents a mile gets these days. Working for less than $10 dollars an hour and living in
a box for a month. We’re so screwed. Meanwhile hamburger flippers make more money than us. Whats wrong with this picture. These big carriers are making enough money to be able to pay a driver a decent living, but they don’t. Greed sucks! I live in South Florida where the average pay for an Big Rigger is $12-$16 an hour for local and 32 cents for OTR. Un F***ING real. BYE BYE trucking industry.
I agree local trucking pays nothing in Atlanta it is 11-13/hr I refuse to drive local because it is just slavery . I wish more otr had the math skills to see how badly they are getting screwed at .34-.38/mile sadly they do not.
Welcome back to the real world.
Even with GPS I still call and ask for directions. Sometimes I get a smart one that asks me”don’t you have GPS?” yea right.
Just further proof that truth is stranger than fiction. “We drive a fine line.” Brilliant!
Actually there could be a lesson here for companies: be very careful not only when choosing your drivers, but your slogans as well.
Isn’t that PTL that drives a fine line?
It were yesterday , rumor has it that’s it about to change to
” going where no truck has gone before ” .
PS – I just started that rumor .
This reminded me of a story from a couple of years ago that happened close to where I live. A middle class soccer mom drove her large SUV into a swamp, because her GPS told her to go there. The SUV sunk up to the roof. She managed to climb on top and call 911 from her cell phone. I never imagined that I would read a story about a professional truck driver blaming technology for his lack of judgement, foresight and rational thinking. There was a time when truck drivers needed to have an IQ higher than a chimpanzee to do their job safely and properly. Now, with the automatic transmissions, GPSes, Satellite comms and on board computers, the driver is using less and less of his brain power and not applying his life experience to the situations he is facing out there. This is the result.
I have been in the business for 30 years and this is a new one on me. I have never used a gps, but even with directions coming from a qualcom, I would ALWAYS verify the route on a flipping truckers atlas and then again verbally with the shipper/receiver when I got in the area and write it down for easy reference. What the hell are people doing in the cab of a truck if they can’t read a map and plan their route. Seriously, is it any wonder to anyone why we have come to the “nanny state” of government messing up the trucking industry (more than it already has) when we have stupid crap like this happening. A wrong turn is one thing, but getting a truck on a pedestrian trail. Good Grief.
Wow! I’m speachless. I believe that ‘stupid’ is the understatement!
This is the new breed of ignorance. Lack of intelligence is the demise of mankind. Our government enjoys this because they are pushing to stupify the country. Heck, they are almost there. This is beyond pathetic. Then to blame an inanimate object! This guy needs to wear a helmet! 24yrs no GPS and im proud of it!!! I got 5 1/2 yrs more to go then I’m outa here. This is definately an incurable epidemic that’s rampidly widespread. God help us!
HERE’S YOUR SIGN !!!!
A GPS is a guide. It is not a god.
this is your modern day truck driver! whats that old saying? oh yea ANYBODY can drive a truck. this proves that.
I drive for a third-party contractor. We haul for a warehouse that has a contract to handle a major grocery chain’s merchandise. About 6 years ago we received a memo from the grocery chain, which owns the trailers, asking us to please stop using GPS units when we have perfectly good directions. As we get paid by the mile, several of the “super trucker” morons that I work with figured they would beat the company out of mileage money by taking shortcuts.
As of this week, and since the memo 6 years ago, these Big Time Operators have topped at least 45 trailers and ripped the sides out of 20 more. But the GPS said to go this way!
Uh huh. and since when did Tom Tom make a commercial navigation device.
I have the same motto on my truck !
It also has P T L in BIG RED letters wrote on it !
I think there might even be something about MURRAY KY
on it too .
5 bucks says the person that hired this guy is still employed , and the process used to hire drivers
hasn’t , and wont change .
Any takers ?
Didn’t think so …
Dibs on blowing the pic up to an 18 x 24 and selling them on E-Bay .
Also dibs on making a jig -saw puzzle out of it.
And I can’t find work as a trucker? WTF…….
This brings a whole new means to the term, the Road less Traveled.
Good luck getting out of this, but let’s not blame GPS please.
Now that the old guys who have been blackballed/lied on/lied to/cheated/thoroughly screwed and tossed on the scrap heap and thereby wasting years of experience plus wisdom have discovered that there are easier ways to make a living; just maybe the idiots who planned this disaster can now realize just how much they have screwed the nation. Not all people have the internal drive and dedication it takes to drive a truck. In a perfect world the log book and GPS can always get the load there safely but sadly; we don’t live in a perfect world. Now that the system is broken lets see how they can legislate the load to the receiver on time safely.
Many drivers out there that are brand new to trucking dont know that there is a difference between GPS for trucks and GPS for cars.
Many of my mishaps have been because of this very thing.
When I first started driving truck I ran out and bought a garmin for cars not knowing that there was a difference. Got into some bad locations many times.
Then I bought one for trucks and had fewer problems.
Never ever ever use Google maps!!!!!
I drive for PTL and they use Navgo
I haven’t had any issues as far as routing goes, however it does crash and stop working from time to time. I use a Garmin dezl for trucks as a backup and also have a road atlas.
Common sense and reading road signs is always the best way to stay out of trouble.
Any time you see NO TRUCKS that means you too mister semi truck driver.
STOP and throw on your flashers and figure out where you are and how to get out.
I have had to call the police before to get out of bad spots. Better safe with a hit to the pride and ego and maybe a ticket for impeding traffic then a big fat ticket for destruction of property.