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 ...
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?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.