New legislation tackles truck-bridge crashes

“Bridge strikes by large trucks are preventable and are a real problem in the New York metropolitan area,” Latimer said, in introducing the bill.

“They strain local governments who often bear the financial burden of fixing damaged bridges or redesigning infrastructure to prevent future strikes. They also burden local law enforcement who must divert resources to remove trucks from under bridges and redirect traffic to alternative routes.”

In the aftermath of a truck-bridge crash, Bresnahan said, “it is our local communities that get stuck having to shuffle transportation dollars away from other much-needed projects just to fix the damage.”

The measure is supported by large trucking companies and freight railroads.

“Bridge strikes not only damage critical infrastructure, but can also put other drivers at risk and create major traffic delays,” said American Trucking Associations SVP of Legislative Affairs Henry Hanscom in a press statement. “All drivers have a responsibility to pay attention to their surroundings, read signs, and keep our roadways safe.”

American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association President Chuck Baker pointed out that freight railroads own and maintain thousands of bridges that are susceptible to truck accidents.

“In addition to the harm created by the originating accident, bridge strikes can cause economic disruption to a region for an extended period of time as repairs are underway – particularly if the bridge is part of a railway line,” he said.

Provisions in the legislation direct the Transportation Secretary to:

• Establish a Bridge Clearance Strike Working Group to make recommendations on improving public-private information sharing on clearance and truck route data, improving truck specific information and route signs on GPS navigation tools, and recommend ways for companies that rent trucks to label them with height and weight information.
• Create a National Clearinghouse for Bridge and Tunnel Clearance Strikes to collect data and disseminate best practices to prevent truck-bridge strikes.
• Create a grant program to conduct research using the national clearinghouse to identify locations for potential infrastructure improvement projects to mitigate bridge strikes and to assess the effectiveness of current and future countermeasures.

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• House bill targets staged truck crashes

Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.