Walmart truck gets stuck under overpass
Update: One tow truck arrived, but a second tow truck careened off a hillside above the crash scene
INDEPENDENCE, Ore. - A Walmart truck got stuck under a railroad overpass Monday morning, blocking a rural Marion County road in both directions, the sheriff's office said.
The trucker driver, 63-year-old Glenn V. Bickford of Coos Bay, told deputies he misread the height restriction sign on River Road and thought his truck and trailer would fit.
The trailer is 13-feet, 6-inches tall.
The underpass is restricted to 12-foot, 9-inch tall vehicles.
Bickford was following the advice of his truck's GPS system to navigate between Salem and Monmouth.
Bickford was cited by a sheriff's deputy for violating the road use limits.
The deputy remained at the scene to assist Bickford in contacting his employer and removing the truck and trailer.
Wreckers were called, but the response time from Woodburn was likely to leave the road blocked for several hours, the sheriff's office said.
That one of the wreckers wrecked off a hill above the deputy and the stuck trucker didn't help get the road open. No one was seriously hurt.
Marion County Public Works posted signs to warn drivers to use alternate routes to Independence.
Proof truck drivers DO NOT READ SIGNS - classic curly, larry and moe...
 I used to live in Salem, and I have traveled that road quite often. I even drove school bus for Salem, and that section of River Road South, we were not allowed to take our school buses through due to the low clearance. That trailer is 13 feet 6 inches tall, and looking at the pics and at Google maps, if the Wal-Mart driver came from downtown Salem, there is a warming sign that says 12 foot 3 inch clearance just prior to the accident scene, plus as you leave downtown Salem, there is a warning sign about 6 miles before the accident scene that gives a warning of the 12 foot 3 inch clearance. In either case he had plenty of warming. The driver claims that he thought it was a 13 foot clearance, Iâm sorry; there is a major difference between a 2 and a 3. The only way I can think of him getting there and not seeing any height restrictions was if he took one of two âbackâ roads. One road, the last mile is grave and one lane. If he would have taken that road, the trailer tires would have gone off the road and pulled the trailer over. The other road has a really steep hill and at the bottom, he could not have made the left turn to get onto River Road. Ironically, one of the rescue tow trucks crashed on that hill coming to the Wal-Mart Trucks rescue.
If he let the air out of all of the tires on the trailer, he might have made it.Â
@peace Not likely with a foot (12 inch) difference ;-)
@angelgabe @peace--- 13'6" minus 12'9"= 9" not 12". A high enough # for the sidewall aspect ratio should deflate the tires (ie. the trailer) by 9", but only if the trailer was fully loaded, which it was not.
But, the driver was probably fully loaded. LOL :D
Maybe a remedial reading class is in order for this trucker?
Well, so much for rolling back the prices...
More like peeled back the prices.
None the less, the yellow bouncy wal mart icon will no longer have a "happy face".
There are several signs warning of the height restriction, he didn't "mis-read" them, he didn't read them. Â
That was a really stupid way to get from Salem to Monmouth. There is a much better way that doesn't include any overpasses and uses a four-lane highway for much of the trip. Wow! In addition, it is clear from the photos that the driver was going way too fast around that curve. BTW, just because the sign says you have 12' 9" of clearance doesn't mean you do. If there is a dip under the overpass, the trailer won't go in the dip, it will straddle it and you can lose a foot or two of clearance.
I think I know that bridge, it is an old back road to Salem. Â 3rd truck roll over this week 2 of on the coast here. Â Can't say I can blame the driver who came upon the herd of Elk. Â Most folks are aware they like the Highway South of Yachets and drive slower. No report on the status of the Elk that ended up under the truck causing it to roll over.
@In God we Trust... I think we can place the bulk of the blame on a driver who can't tell the difference between the number 12 and the number 13...as if! I imagine there is more than one sign along his route that warned him the road wasn't for semi-trucks/trailers (since he did get cited for that) and perhaps even a sign warning off the height limits well before he tried to drive under. It's trash-mart, after all.
@Cynthia Nordstrom There are several along that stretch of road warning of sub 13' clearances. I have to wonder why he was headed for Monmouth though since it doesn't have a Walmart.
@Josh Hjelmberg ---since he can't read well, he thought he was heading for the "K-Mart" in Monmouth?
Boy, good thing it was empty. That's the problem with some GPS programs though, they tell you the shortest route but not necessarily the best one, and they don't always take allowed truck routes into account either.
I wonder if he was trying to do a backroad sneak to avoid the scales. Â I certainly wouldn't put something like that past Wal-Mart. Â They cheat every way possible to bring you the cheap Chinese junk that will be in the landfill before the credit card bill is even paid.
@Arch Stanton You may be right.  IIRC Hwy 22 from Independance to Salem has a truck weigh in station.
That'll buff right out.
Seriouly they raised all the bridges on I5 for the transport of mobile homes and they missed this one
@Pit Bull This is well off the path used by Semi Trucks.
@Josh Hjelmberg @Pit Bull ---maybe the truck driver was on his way back to smuggle more illegal immigrants from K-Mart to Walmart. The truck probably was heavy enough to compress the tire's sidewalls by 9" with a trailer full of 500 Mexicans. But, on the empty return voyage from Walmart to K-Mart...that's were he got himself into a jam.
GPS is only a tool. It's not a replacement for common sense-or if in doubt why didn't the driver pull up to the trestle, get out and use his eyes before blindly damaging his trailer, and maybe the RR trestle?
Dumb Ass!
He isn't stuck, he simply broke down while delivering that overpass.
@catzmeow I needed a laugh today, THANK YOU for a good one.
Marion County Public Works is posting signs to warn drivers to use alternate routes to Independence.Â
They are posting signs now! When they finished building that bridge (at 12 feet high) that's when the signs should go up! The industry standard is usually 14 feet for a bridge. Bridge heights vary quite a bit over the lower 48, but they almost always post signs well before the bridge.Â
Local government and county employees aren't the brightest bulbs in the lot anyway. The Highway Patrol or state police should have caught that there where no hight signs also....
In New York in the older parts of many of the old Burroughs they repave the roads so many times over the years the clearance isn't the hight it once was or what the sign says. They don't change them to reflect the difference.
I was in the Brooks in NY in 1995 (Driving a 1992 19'Â Fright-liner Condo, pulling a 53' dry van, good thing I was loaded) and I had to cross under this bridge, the sign said 13.9 something like that I don't really remember. It was nowhere near 13.9 though, more like 13.6. Which is what the hight (13.6) of my trailer was. There was another truck driver sitting on the side of the road (just before the bridge) wondering if he could make it. I told him (on the CB) I'll try it, you just yell on the CB if I'm not going to clear it. He told me I made it by about one inch. He followed me through after I made it through myself.
Auh, the fun times...@Postone Those bridges and rail line were originally built 50+ years ago, and I'm fairly certain it is posted at both ends, and along the way, that there are sub 13' clearances. The comment of "posting signs" in the story was about temporary detour signs.
@Josh Hjelmberg I just that they aren't always posted, and you say they are. I've been there, I wonder if you have...?
@Postone I've never met or heard a OTC driver ever admit they are at fault, it's always the other guy....that's over 29 years as an emergency responder (fire dept)
@Cynthia Nordstrom I'll tell you what Cynthia. Most of time its the cars that cause the trouble. You know cutting in front of everyone including the drivers and than hitting the brakes to make that exit unaware or not caring that the truck they just hit the breaks in front of can't stop!Â
But to answer you comment truck drivers drive cars too....
Duh...I could tell it's not tall enough just from my chair how stupid is wal mart for hiring this dumb arse. better go back to driving your Toyota pick up then you'll make it .
@IAMHIGH trash-mart is always low bid, no matter what
Ruh Roh Shaggy. Might want to go the old fashion way and use a roll up map instead of the GPS system
@TAKEDOWNÂ ---that's an hilarious comment! I really wonder which GPS systems (if any) account for the 3rd dimension? Please do tell us if you know of one that does for the sake of the next trucker liable to get in a jam.
In the mean time, I will just try to ghostwrite a good Jay Leno joke for this event.
"The sexy robot voice told me to do it officer!"...
@peace @TAKEDOWN I had the pleasure of talking at length with an OTR driver at length while he was waiting for a load of cargo. His company had a program that calculated the most fuel effecient route that took into account bridge clearances. The data is out there for companies, apparently someone didn't listen.
The comment of "posting signs" in the story was about temporary detour signs.
@Josh Hjelmberg ---thanks, good to know.
Seriously I have seen some accidents that occurred because someone had blindly followed GPS instructions and didn't use their common sense.