Here's a newbie mistake...

My point exactly! So a condo with a 53' trailer is easily over 15 tons empty. A driver should know the combined weight of his vehicle, as the 4 others who responded to my post proved.

If this guy knew (or cared) that his truck was over the limit when it was empty, there's nothing to ponder. I've parked a Swift truck on the side of a road I was routed on while I called dispatch at 3am because I'm staring at a low clearance, or "No Trucks" sign.

Anyway, yeah that dude screwed himself hard. Doh!

 

I think this case is a perfect example of what's wrong in trucking. DOT screwed up by not providing a safe environment (providing an alternate route for the trucks). I don't know why I keep repeating this because it appears it's falling on deaf ears. He could have stayed where he was until he was advised on what to do, and probably been cited for some other violation by causing traffic to back up, thereby creating another traffic hazard. DOT is responsible for public safety too, you know. They are NOT blameless in this situation. But most everyone here seems to want to give them a pass so it appears I'm the odd man out, figuratively speaking. Do truckers ever get sick and tired of paying for someone else screwing up? Doesn't anyone want something to change to improve the working condition of the average trucker? Do you all like having the whole weight of responsibility on your shoulders? Or would you like to see job responsibilities distributed fairly among all responsible parties? You, the driver, many times pays for someone else oversight. Somewhere down the road you will bear the brunt of anothers mistake....lucky you.

In regard to the driver and this is mere speculation on my part, but I think he caved to the pressure of traffic backing up behind him and he decided to "go for it", not wanting others to get pissed off at him for holding them up. He did make a mistake by caving to pressure from others and crossing that bridge. But if those signs were after any points where he could have turned around? I hope he fights this in court along with the others who were caught with their pants down.

 

Should have turned back.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...6.974427,-89.145577&spn=0.011074,0.02002&z=16

 

You have good points, they're just not applicable once he made the decision "to go for it"...He put it all on himself, that's what you seem to be missing...

Twice people have pointed out he had a place to turn around and even supplied a link to a picture showing you, why do you ignore that?...You can't screw up THEN go back and try to find people to blame for it...DOT didn't make him "go for it"...

 

DOH!!!!!!!

 

P.S. Looking at the street view of the south entrance/exit of the driveway in that photo, there's a semi coming from the bridge... lol, a loaded flatbed.

P.S.S. And a semi coming north bound toward the bridge!

 

lol, noticed that right away too but streetview isn't real time. Those are probably from before they put the restriction in.

 

No doubt, but irony is fun.

 

I noticed the areas for possible turnaround on Google Earth, but must have missed the weight limit sign. How old is the satellite information for Google Earth?

 

What you seem to have missed is the fact that I said he made a wrong choice. I don't recall saying he didn't.

However, the pic doesn't show where these signs were placed. I see a picture of a road that has a side road and a building with a driveway. This picture doesn't show where the signs are located, so this doesn't really answer the question. Show me the street pic and the location of the signs and I might retract my statement that he had nowhere to turn around. This picture is not worth a thousand words. Aerial shots can't tell you anything other than there was a driveway and a road, to where exactly, is anyone's guess.

I looked at the street level of those two places on google earth where you say he could have "turned" around. He couldn't. One is a dirt road that is called Levee Rd for a reason. The other looks like a burger joint with no place to pull around. Next question?