They usually have multiple warning gates on lift span bridges. This report sounds deficient.
Doesn't this bridge have any warnings for drivers when the span is lifted? The lift bridges around here sure do.
The bridge's safety gates, which had been damaged in an accident a few days earlier, were not operating.
"They were not aware that the bridge had been lifted," Police Chief Robert Troy said at a news conference this morning. "They could not see because of the conditions."
. . .
The bridge's operator called police to report the accident.
It remains unclear whether the operator was aware that the police vehicle was on the bridge at the time it was lifted. Several units, including divers from the New York City Police Department, responded to the accident.
“The safety bar and bell used to warn motorists when the bridge is open had not been working for two days”
So sad. Perhaps if they were answering a call and had their sirens on and were going at a high speed, they wouldn’t have heard it anyway.
Why would the authorities have allowed the safety bar and bell to go un-functioning for two days?
It's one of those situations where the totally unexpected happens.
I worked part time in a funeral home years ago. They had an old elevator that was raised and lowered by hand. It was SOP to lock the entrance door at the top before lowering yourself, so that the shaft would be inaccessible from above and thus prevent a fall.
I stayed overnight in the apartment on the top floor to answer calls that might come at any hour, occasionally taking calls at a very early hour. On one particlar early morning call the gurney was on the top floor by the elevator. I opened the doors (which of course were unlocked or else I couldn't have opened them), then pushed the gurney onto what I thought was a waiting elevatior. It plunged loudly into the abyss. Talk about a wake up call!
All I can say is I'm glad I was pushing the gurney instead of pulling it, as I would have required the funeral home's services and not been here to tell you about it.
On another morning I encountered a burglar in the funeral home's apartment next to mine. I'll save that story for some another thread some other time.
I haven’t been on that bridge in 15 or 16 years, but if it's the one I think it is, it used to raise at an angle that was so steep most 4x4s couldn’t climb it. Driving up the open bridge, even blindfolded, one would know that something wasn’t right. Unless this is a different bridge than I’m thinking about, I don’t see how they could have driven up the open bridge by mistake, let alone driven up it and over the edge by mistake. Something here doesn’t add up.
The fog was so thick that morning. How tragic.