15 comments on Truck rollover at Flinders/Spencer. Again.

Nathan on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 12:52 pm


It’s getting almost comical now. Thankfully I think in all four cases you mention Daniel, nobody was injured, though I think that’s more out of luck. Have truck drivers suddenly gotten stupider, because I don’t recall it happening much before this year!

Kiwi Nick on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 1:18 pm


“I believe we are in danger of being swamped by clowns”

Is there any other conclusion we could possibly come up with?

Phill on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 3:52 pm


@Daniel. Why cant the line between southern cross and finders st stations be underground and part of the viaduct can be demolished.

Phill on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 3:54 pm


Also I could not go from Spencer st to Crown Casino in the rain walking so I had to walk to kings way and I could not use the tram going north from Crown Casino.

Brettski on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 6:53 pm


It appears that truck drivers the world over have this issue: http://www.2m40.com/

Dave on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 9:31 pm


@Phill – go and take a look! There’s no way you could get the track underground, then back to the height of Southern Cross in the distance available. Not to mention the expense. If you were going to do anything, you’d lower the road a bit more; however, you’re pretty close to the river there, and much lower you’d be swimming.

Surely it’s not too hard for trucks to take an alternative route if they’re overheight, rather than look to massive engineering solutions… especially when it’s clear that 99.99% of traffic is fine. Four trucks a year would be a very, very low proportion of total traffic through that intersection… charging damages to the relevant driver/company might go some way to reducing further the problem?

Fen on Mon, 4th Oct 2010 10:04 pm


I had an ex who was a truckie and he said that it was their responsibility to make sure than the route they were taking had sufficient clearances under all bridges. Lazy truck drivers it seems.

Will Hughes on Tue, 5th Oct 2010 12:24 am


I know it’s not a fix, but I’ve seen some places hang heavy chains that dangle down – like a bead curtain – to the height of the bridge. They’re placed a few hundred meters back – so anything that ignores the signs gets a (loud) bang on the top of their vehicle before the solid impact.

Seems like a cheaper solution than having to shut down the road while a truck is hauled out.

Liz on Tue, 5th Oct 2010 9:17 am


I used to work at McDonald’s. At the start of the drive-thru, they had a sign hanging on a chain to warn you about the height limit. Despite the loud warning striking the sign must have given, I can recall a few occasions where trucks ignored it and proceeded to drive into the roof above the ordering/paying windows. Cos surely the warning sign mustn’t have been meant for them…

Philip on Tue, 5th Oct 2010 3:24 pm


Most smaller trucks will have a sticker inside if they’ve thought to put one in, but it’s not a requirement under the law as far as I know. Any driver of a heavy rigid or articulated truck (such as the one that crashed) would know their truck is allowed to be up to 4.3 m high, or 4.6 if it is carrying livestock or has some other special permit. So if I was a driver, I would assume my truck wouldn’t fit under that bridge and go somewhere else.

However I’m also aware that it’s quite a long route to get around that bridge, so perhaps if this driver thought his truck was 30 cm lower than maximum height, he thought he’d give it a go. Still, if I was him, I’d have snuck up slowly and looked out the window as I edged up to it, rather than charging in there without thinking.

Basically if there’s a ‘low clearance’ sign, a driver should assume there is not enough space for a standard heavy truck unless they know what height their truck is. The truck in this particular crash is definitely in the category of ‘probably going to be 4.3 m high’.

The only permanent solution would be to drop the road 350 mm at that location, but cleaning the sign, and perhaps adding a preliminary bar for trucks to hit before the real one, would help.

Daniel on Fri, 8th Oct 2010 3:36 pm


And again!

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/another-truck-accident-blocks-city-traffic-20101008-16b20.html

Dave on Fri, 8th Oct 2010 9:43 pm


What’s the bet the “GPS told them to go that way” ; )

Kiwi Nick on Mon, 11th Oct 2010 10:19 am


*** Drum roll ***
*** Drum roll ***

Truck roll!!!

Not one but another two truck rollovers.

First: City Road (collision with tram bridge above) Southbank 7 October (it’s actually the day before Daniel’s comment #11.

Second: Princes Highway, Morwell, about 7:15am this morning. Nothing in Google News, but there was an alert on the radio traffic report, and on VicRoads, which has since disappeared.

*** Sigh ***

Kiwi Nick on Mon, 11th Oct 2010 10:22 am


Hmm, my formatting wasn’t the best that time. Anyway, a link for the City Road accident: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/truck-accident-blocks-traffic-20101007-168s5.html

MitH on Sat, 23rd Oct 2010 4:41 pm


hi
great blog

a common issue on this corner is trucks wandering from westgate and docklands way.
the bridge diagonally across from the low one is actually higher and signposted at 4.5m
http://www.nearmap.com/?q=@-37.821228,144.954241&ll=-37.821228,144.954241&z=19&t=k&nmd=20101001

once they turn the corner they dont see the 4m limit until its too late

there is now a temp board up saying ‘ low 4m bridge on sideroad ahead’ at the location in the link

again the overall intersection needs better inspection and re-signing

D