Motor vehicles / cars crashing into buildings

An interesting variant from Trier, Germany:

Lots of pictures on this page:

https://news-trier.de/grosseinsatz-im-trier-lkw-durchbricht-in-ehrang-eine-hauswand/

https://twitter.com/CrimeLdn/status/1321127821889146880?s=19

Footage shows a Ferrari crashing yesterday in central London

ok, not into a building but WAC!

Idiot. Thank goodness he missed the bike rider coming towards him.

There's a thread for this sort of thing, by the way:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/267392/

RLJ'er tho...

thanks, i've re-posted it in the correct place!

Not a building - a sculpture titled 'Saved by a Whale's tail'

Rotterdam

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You couldn't make it up.

Could be "Bad things happen to expensive cars" or "Train hits Bridge".
The video is great. It just keeps going and going.
https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/watch-bridge-peels-roof-from-train-destroys-cars-inside

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Oh dear.

There's a link in that article to another bridge which is apparently notorious for being hit:

https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/watch-infamous-can-opener-bridge-raised-8-inches-still-shreds-truck-roofs

'Raising the height of the bridge didn’t raise the IQ of drivers passing underneath it'

It'll be inattention rather than IQ, but there you go. People probably don't expect that warning display and don't look out for it.

https://www.youtube.com/c/yovo68

It's quite therapeutic...

That orange warning bar is mounted on a separate structure and probably already shaves off a good deal of the force with which the bridge would be hit if vehicles weren't reduced in height ever so slightly before they get to the actual bridge.

Ah, yes:

So frequently do trucks crash into the 11-foot-8 clearance trestle, that the railroad company installed a crash beam in front of it. This massive steel I-beam bears the brunt of the impact, protecting the structure that supports this fairly busy railroad track. Believe it or not – they already had to replace the beam once!

http://11foot8.com/about/

The compilations are the best:

http://11foot8.com/the-good-the-bad-and-some-ugly-crashes/

The guy who makes these videos and runs the web-site is called Jürgen Henn, which sounds like a German name. Not that I would impute any particular significance to this.

The bridge is here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@35.9993217,-78.9100316,3a,43.3y,208.07h,84.42t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGxIgj-1PdvlgtbqjLfGp1A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DGxIgj-1PdvlgtbqjLfGp1A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D323.27606%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

I'm sure there's a sound engineering reason why the carriageway hasn't been lowered there yet, but that would be the obvious solution. Failing that, there are a couple of things they could do:

1) Return the street to two-way operation. That this is a one-way street is undoubtedly a factor in driver inattention. Obviously, they'd then have to install a warning installation/crash bar on the other side, too.

2) Carriageway markings ('LOW BRIDGE') would work better as a warning mechanism, but I don't know if you can get site-specific permission for things like that in the USA.

3) Do satnav systems have info like bridge heights? I assume they must do, but if not, they should.

4) The warning to turn is, of course, only visible far too late. Most lorry drivers who crash there seem to approach along South Gregson Street and they should be warned at least one block ahead. That would still leave room for error, but would undoubtedly result in fewer crashes.

It's just very unfortunate that the bridge is just that little bit too low, not by much, that so many lorry drivers fall foul of it.

Reminds me of living in Kenworthy road by the railway bridge there. I never actually saw a truck hit it, but the number of times I heard it and looked out the window to see the aftermath was ridiculous.
Over the years the signs coming from Homerton high st were repeatedly upgraded. It didn’t seem to have much effect.
There were some corkers. One was a removals lorry. Driver knocked on my door and asked to use the phone. I didn’t have one in the house so he went down the road towards the Tiger. Half an hour later the cops showed up and asked where he was. He’d done a runner and inside the truck was a stolen BMW 633 with no wheels.
My house was the one on the left of the photo

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Great story. The Kenworthy Road bridge problem is famous in Hackney. It's supposed to be 16'6" clearance under bridges, but the KR bridge is even lower than the one in North Carolina.

It's nothing against the Coppermill Lane bridge, which is probably about 5'. (I used to know this but can't remember now.)

I just looked at the Brighton Argue web-site because of @Tomo187 's post in the 'Bastard Neighbours' thread and promptly found this:

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/18841352.train-delays-crash-bridge-brighton-lewes/

With ongoing apologies to @Fox for including mere structures.

The warning to turn is, of course, only visible far too late. Most lorry drivers who crash there seem to approach along South Gregson Street and they should be warned at least one block ahead. That would still leave room for error, but would undoubtedly result in fewer crashes.

There’s a comment on one of the YT vids that says there are warning signs for something like 8 blocks approaching along that road.

Well, I didn't check eight blocks back, but I did check two or three. The only sign I could spot on StreetView (and, of course, that may not show the current situation, as it's from 2019) was this one, one block ahead (top right corner):

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@36.000135,-78.9091124,3a,69.5y,228.99h,99.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sI0rtUF5bDLRzbPA4r1bL-w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I do think you need carriageway markings in addition to signage. Drivers miss signs all the time, and doubling up with different ways of conveying information would be more effective here, I think.

Hm, looking at some of the intersecting streets, there doesn't seem to be any signage warning lorry drivers not to turn that way, either.

I was walking down my street today when a bus passed on the other side and I heard a very loud metallic screech. He'd scratched right along a parked car. The driver did get out and take a pic so I assume he'll report it but how the car owner finds out who damaged their car I don't know.

There's a link in that article to another bridge which is apparently notorious for being hit

The fine city of Ely is proud as its status as the location of the most-struck-by-vehicles bridge in the UK.

Even after they finished the southern bypass, which means that lorries don't need to use that section of road at all, people still manage to ignore the enormous signs and flashing warning lights.

This one, by an MOD van, was my favourite.

Edit: Actually, that was the bridge at Stonea, just down the road. Ranked at #2 in the UK apparently.

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We see semis at work driven by guys who follow their GPS with total disregard for road signs.

There is a residential area near us and semis often get stuck in there because the GPS shows a short cut. This despite lots of "Not A Truck Route" signs.

My opinion of long haul truckers is very low.

Your memory is correct; Coppermill Lane bridge is 5’ according to the sign

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Ah, cool, I expect the tourist double-deckers include it on their tour of the city?

Cheers, I actually meant to go down myself to check as it's not on StreetView, but you got there first.

Bicycle Tag of Bridge.