“If at first you don’t succeed, maybe you shouldn’t try again.” That’s the moral of this story. Around 5:30 a.m. on May 5th, the infamous Scott Avenue viaduct was struck by driver Sam Tagoe. From the photographs, it appears that the 20-foot HC (high capacity) container engaged the steel I-beam and caused it to flip over toward the driver’s side, breaking free from the front couplers. Police were dispatched to the scene when the unthinkable occurred.
When you thought it was safe…
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, another truck struck the viaduct, this time in the other lane. Israel Gonzalez’s container struck the I-beam in the same manner, but the container separated from the chassis and broke a nearby power pole. Luckily no one was injured other than some whiplash. Police cited both men with “failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.”
I do not know what really caused these incidents; I only report on them. But there’s some talk in the port community that there might be some chassis to container mismatching. There’s not a single standardized height. Everyone has their own “patented” design that’s a little different in one aspect or another. So when you mismatch, there’s a slight possibility you might be too tall by an inch or two. When’s the last time you pulled the tape measure out and checked your front and back heights? Yes, check both sides. You can always make sure your height is legal, but you just have to hope that a three-inch-long bolt under the bridge doesn’t grab you!
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