Posted on 11/09/2009 7:36:46 AM PST by SmithL
Edited on 11/09/2009 8:21:14 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
A truck driver died early today after losing control on the Bay Bridge S-curve at high speed and plummeting 200 feet below to Yerba Buena Island, the most serious collision yet since the new detour was installed, the California Highway Patrol said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Was his name Yoder???
Ugh. As if I needed any more reasons to be afraid of driving.
Lotta crashes since they stuck that S curve in there...
Along this stretch, at least on the top deck, there is no heavy barrier — just a low piece of “jersey wall” and some see-through fencing. I’ve driven in the outside lane in my van, and you get a spectacular, but scary, view. I’m not surprise a big truck went over — there’s nothing to keep it on the road surface.
This is not the first truck that lost it here. A friend of mine was stuck behind the last one — for four hours.
They should have had, and now had better have, a big, big -ass warning sign in both directions, telling trucks that they need to take it REAL slow, or they’ll get killed.
WTF?
Obviously the design/signage/speed rating is WRONG.
Doesn't California have experience with highways?
“200 feet is a long way to contemplate your fate.”
I wonder if we could install a huge picture of W just before the S curve on a huge billboard with him smiling and waving...the number of San Francisco socialists then entering the curve with only one hand on the wheel, the other busy giving him the bird...well, just a thought...
Turning can be very difficult for Kalifornians, what with all their texting, cell phone chatter, reading, and pounding on the dashboard at Glenn Beck and all ...
Sounds as though someone did some very poor planning! We used to call Yerba Buena “Yogi Bear” island when I was going to electronics school on Treaure Island back in ‘62 and ‘63, I don’t remember a lot of wrecks back then.
which I guarantee caused more grief amongst citizens there than the poor man's death....most papers would not even mention a pissant 30-40 gallons of frigging fuel...good lord...a bathtub full...folks out there are insane.
Yes, but they also have experience with extensive bureaucratic red tape....and earthquakes.
The bay bridge has been a constricted construction zone for as long as I've been travelling out there, and they've always got some little inspection zone of rivet replacing or some kind of additional bracing addition going on on that thing.
To save just one life during an earthquake, how many have to die during construction?
As time has gone by, I find I cannot drive over these types of bridges unless I am in the inside lane. Even at that, I focus exclusively on the tail lights in front of me and try not to look to the sides. Its weird, when young I rode on helicopters with my feet on the skids and never felt panicked. I have even thought of designing some glasses with blinders to help me cross such bridges. The worst one I crossed is in Astoria, OR, crossing the Columbia river. I let my wife drive across the Chesapeak Bay Bridge. Don’t know what causes this fear, but it is real.
At least the road is clear this time.
The load goes straight the road turns. Get down to 40 MPH before the turn. These drivers know that. This guy was a local driver.
Local news has shown the truck which exploded on impact with the ground. No fire, just exploded as in came apart at the seams. Looks like it went through a blender.
...and some people just refuse to slow down for road conditions regardless of the warning.
Yes. We have found that cars are found on and around highways, and cars are evil because they are made of metal and stuff and use gasoline, which is evil.
There was a time when California's freeway system was the best in the world, by far. Today that is not the case. I can't really say what went wrong, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone in the Caltrans engineering organization that could explain it in English......
I've got a fear of ALL heights. I can handle things if there is enough of a barrier, but can't get too close to the edge.
LOL! Post of the day for funny and sort of weird posts.
;-)
I like your thinking... ;)
Houston has a really high bridge & we were traveling with a pickup & 28 foot Airstream when the engine went out just before we got to the top. There was no way to back up & my husband was able to get the vehicle started again & we coasted all the way down the bridge. No way no how am I getting near that bridge again.
Ouch, think I will take the long way around. Did you know the Chesapeak Bay Bridge has drivers available to drive people across? Wonder if this bridge has the same?
My experience in NY (and I don't drive all that much) is that such problem areas here tend to have 24/7 police presence with flashing lights and glowering men in blue, pulling folks over.
I've been told you do NOT want to be stopped by a couple of bored cops..
This is what you get when a bridge is designed by a group of Community Organizers and not bridge engineers...
I was up on the roof of the building where I work to do some patching this past Saturday. It’s a flat roof, but I couldn’t get too close to the sides because it scars the sh*t out of me when I look down.
Did you know the Chesapeak Bay Bridge has drivers available to drive people across?
That's interesting. Do you have to pay a fee?
I don’t blame you. How high up were you?
I do not know how fast the human brian "contemplates"...but a drop of 20 feet (@ 32 ft/sec/sec) would take less than .55 of a second.
Truly not a long time to contemplate much of anything.
Don’t know, never used it. I just white knuckle it across. Man, what a relief when you are over it.
I go over the S curve every day. There are flashing lights, signs, everything but a speed bump telling people to SLOW DOWN to 40 mph. But you will always have idiots, despite the jackknifed truck, despite 42 accidents that have now included a fatality, that believe they can take the curve at “60 - no problem.”
I don’t know if it’s a peculiarity of Cali drivers (of which I’m one) or drivers in general, but if the sign says take the curve at 25, 35, or whatever, I’m such a nervous nellie I do what they tell me.
The stimulus package at work...
Only three stories, but it might as well have been 20. I entered through a skylight, so getting up and down was easy.
Looks pretty, but I can definitely understand the fear.
It goes with the ‘No Fault’ approach in California Gubamint.
meshes quite well, eh?
6.2 billion , opens 2013
don’t hire a truck driver they’re no better back east than out west...
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/944749/chesapeake_bay_bridge_accident_closes.html
Been there done that. I once crossed the old Tampa bridge. There were two old metal spans. A freighter hit one bcak in 1980 something. There was one span going north and another south. After the accident they kept the one span open going north and south until the new bridge was built.
I made the mistake of going over it. You could see the wrecked span. I was pretty scared.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge may be an engineering marvel- the longest of its kind- but it is one I have always faced with trepidation.
slightly less than 3 seconds. "one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-thWHAM".
No that was somebody hollering, "Yo dere, you alive down dere?"
years ago (early 80’s) I hauled fabricated steel for the tunnels that run under the bay and we were made to drive into the tunnels to unload.
My mother is the only thing (person) in my life that I truly feared but the thought of being under that much water made me nervous...
20 feet would take 1.12 seconds.
200 feet would take 3.53 seconds.
Awesome...just awesome...:)
Drowning and falling to my deah—definitely not two of my favorites :)
I have even thought of designing some glasses with blinders to help me cross such bridges.
That is not hard to do. Get some thick opaque plastic sheeting, cut a rectangle, punch two holes in it in line and thread it on the earpiece of your eyeglasses. One rectangle on each side.
it works!
Or you can get some welder’s safety glasses with dark side shields.
That works also.
You're not alone.
I grew up in Chicago and we have a lot of bridges that cross the Chicago River. They're not long or high but I never 'liked' crossing them. And when the 'Chicago Skyway' was built I freaked crossing that thing as a kid -- it is high, long and 'open'.
But yet, I have (or had) no problem going up 500ft in a Construction 'Man Hoist' (wire cage elevator) on the outside of a building. Or going to the edge of a floor slab 40 stories up, only 'protected from falling' by a wire attached between to columns. (now the barriers are much better)
There's prolly some fancy name for 'fear of bridges', but like you say, its real. Go figure ?!? :-)
Oh and then when I had Motorcycles I really hated crossing them as the bridge decks are all metal grating and the bike's tires would wiggle...... arrrgh!
Seems that Caltrans closed the lane again and took some aerial photos. Perhaps they also note some inconsistency...
in Cal. they view through their bellybuttons
it’s the most popular method there that I have noticed...
I don't want to make light of the poor man's fate, because I don't mean this as such, but remember that everything slows to a crawl in times like that.
To me, 3.53 seconds of full enlightenment, knowing full well the end is approaching, is a lifetime.
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