Chevy Express On Transport Truck Demolished By Under-Construction Overpass: Video
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Out on the highway, things can go very wrong, very quickly. The danger is upped even further as soon as you start stacking cars together in close proximity, such as on a car transportation carrier. Now, we’re seeing a dramatic demonstration of this fact with the following video showing a Chevy Express demolished by an overpass.
The video comes to us from local ABC affiliate ABC7, and was captured on a freeway in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from the dash cam of another motorist. The video opens with a shot of the freeway in the daytime, with some light traffic on the road. Just ahead of the car with the dash cam mounted in it is a line of vehicles, including a car carrier with several vehicles stacked on top of it, carrying a Chevy Express van on the top level. It’s possible that the vehicle in question is a GMC Savana, rather than a Chevy Express, but it’s difficult to tell from the footage, so instead, we’ll simply refer to it as a Chevy Express.
As the car carrier approaches a low overpass, we see the driver continue forward, obviously oblivious to the gap needed to clear the vehicles packed up top. The overpass is under construction, and there is some scaffolding underneath it. Several vehicles surround the car carrier.
As the carrier passes under the overpass, the Chevy Express slams into it, sending the van rearwards and onto the freeway. The vehicle directly behind the car carrier slams on the brakes as a cloud of dirt and dust surrounds the area. The driver in the car with the dash cam swerves out of the way and slows down.
As the camera car passes on the right, we see the destruction wrought by the mis-stacked Chevy Express. Luckily, reports indicate that no one was hurt in the accident:
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Another GM vehicle on a flatbed.
I see no warning signs of low overhead clearance before the overpass, so this may be the fault of the construction company. As a retired truck driver I know we are always watching for any signage warning of danger ahead. If that construction equipment made the overpass below the federal limit of 13’6” of clearance the truck driver is not a fault. As a matter of fact clearance on interstates is supposed to be a minimum of 14’6”.
That’s true, he might be able to get out of liability because of that, otherwise he’s in trouble.
Agreed
If the project plans didn’t include signage plans for reduced clearence then the DOT may be liable. Assuming the clearance was less than standard.
Commercial trucks are required to be under 13 ft 6 inches in height from the ground. The bridge looked normal… watch the video again… That was not new structure that fell down after the hit to the bridge. I have seen this before… That was not new construction. The upper deck on the trailer was clearly in the raised position when it hit the bridge.
Good observation. The upper deck does look raised.
Thousands of semi’s went under that overpass without contact. That van was more than 13.5 ft high.
If a Chevy Van is approximately 84 inches tall…and I see two….stacked…….
Vans go on top. Pickups and cars usually ride on the lower deck…
Heavier vehicles on the bottom, lighter ones on top.
They are loaded by delivery time first off last on.
except with vans… vans always ride on the upper deck due to vehicle height restrictions on the lower deck… The upper deck is loaded first, then the lower deck. The upper deck is then lowered so that the total height of the tractor & trailer does not exceed 13″ 6″ from the ground to the highest part of the load. In the yard where these car carriers are loaded, there is a laser beam that the load must pass under before leaving the yard. Likely that a car or a truck was offloaded from the lower deck and the driver did not lower the upper deck to allow clearance for safe driving on the road on the way to the next delivery.
I have seen this happen on Highway 401 close to Gm’s Plant in Oshawa Ontario, Canada… It’s quite impressive when the van hits the bridge! If the truck driver had lowered the upper deck after loading the last car on the bottom deck of the carrier. GMC Van parts all over 6 lanes of traffic… A real mess…
At least the dealer can say the micro-chip shortage was not the culprit for the delay in the customer getting his van.
There is an historic covered bridge nearby in Long grove Il. that gets hit almost weekly despite numerous large warning signs, lights, etc. usually by a U-haul van driven by a semi-literate.
People who rent uhaul trucks rarely think they are driving anything bigger than the Fiat 500 they drove to uhaul to get the truck.
The transporter cleared the bridge before that one and who knows how many other bridges before that. After spending over 40 years in heavy construction, I’m wondering what is all that crap hanging on the underside of the bridge? I’ve never seen anything like that before. Usually when repairing undersides of bridges the work area lanes are closed off and or the work is performed at night. This accident is on who ever has jurisdiction of that bridge repair. Only in Florida.
Ken T. When road surface or guard rails are being repaired or rebuilt, especially when jack hammers are in use, a deck is built below the structure to prevent debris falling onto the road and vehicle’s below. Living in Florida for 32 years, I’ve seen this before but not very often as long as the deck is at DOT high requirement.
No, This happens all over North America. When repairing the concrete that was under the asphalt on the bridges. the construction company covers the underside of the bridge to ensure no concrete debris falls on vehicles traveling underneath the bridge. This allows the lanes under the bridge to remain open.
That is the ramp from I595 to I95 north. The overpass he hit was state road 84
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