Michigan truck driver charged with striking Paradise Township covered bridge

Lancaster Online ^ | October 27, 2025 | Staff

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Pennsylvania State Police have charged a truck driver with ignoring height limit signs and causing damage to a historic covered bridge in Paradise Township.

According to a report from state police, Dragan Markov, 53, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, was operating a Volvo tractor-trailer that exceeded the 10½ feet of clearance of the Leaman Place Covered Bridge, which carries North Belmont Road over Pequea Creek on the Leacock-Paradise township line.

Police say the truck caused significant structural damage to the bridge. Wooden struts on the inside of the bridge were damaged along with the bridge’s maximum clearance signs.

Markov has been charged with a summary traffic violation.

The Leaman Place Covered Bridge, also known as the Eshelman's Mill Covered Bridge, was built in 1893 by Cpt. Elias McMellen, a Civil War veteran from Lancaster city, according to the National Register of Historic Places. The current bridge had replaced one originally constructed at the same spot in 1845.

[xxqqzz]

Maybe the "Michigan" driver couldn't read the sign or didn't know how to convert feet to meters. Or maybe he never learned about overpasses, because someone just bought him a license. Probably from Bulgaria based on the name.

[AZJeep]

Surprising, the bridge survived pretty well.
I would expect it to collapse!

They used to do good jobs building bridges in 1893!

[metmom]

“Michigan???”

Why do I doubt that?

[fruser1]

Markov

I guess he thought the odds were on his side.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

There are actually dedicated GPS units for truck drivers. If you follow it, it will
automatically avoid low clearance, weak bridges, and dead end streets, etc.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

"I guess he thought the odds were on his side."

ISWYDT — well played!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Looking at the photo - not as much damage as there could have been, thank goodness.

I agree. ‘Michigan’ driver? My Aunt Fanny!

[Jeff Chandler]

[Jeff Chandler]

[Tell It Right]

Markov I guess he thought the odds were on his side.

Funny in a history nerd way!

[Flavious_Maximus]

Dragan Markov = Chechen?

Regardless, book him Danno!

[AnAmericanMother]

We have an historic covered bridge here in Cobb County (the Concord Covered Bridge) that has been hit by idiots in box trucks for years. People keep trying to use it (regardless of the GPS screaming NO! NO!) because it's a convenient shortcut.

But it's a narrow, twisty old 1 1/2 lane road with really bad approaches (back in the day, the bridges were 90 degrees to the stream, no matter where the road was coming from.)

The county finally installed a sacrificial barrier about 20 feet from each end of the bridge. It's a big horizontal steel beam with special breakaway bolts on the bottom of each support post. It stops the truck before it can get to the bridge . . . and then they get cited and fined anyway.

Seems to have solved the problem!