My dad was a dump truck driver and this happened to him once when I was about 5. He broke his back in the accident. It’s actually one of the first memories I have of him - going to see him in the hospital and him giving me one of his get-well teddy bears.
Took a LONG time, but eventually they re-did the bridge he hit - but when we drove by it I would always look for the broken chunk of cement still on the bridge.
We have a low bridge in my hometown that has it's own social media pages because it gets hit so often.
My father said he hit it 45 years ago with a Uhaul when he was in college.
Our friends own the uhaul rental company in town, and they make them sign in the contract that they will not go down that road because they've lost so many trucks to it. 🤣
not too make light of this, but I found it funny that OP's story ended with "thankfully the bridge is fine now" while we are all wondering what happened to his dad (glad to hear he recovered as well).
Thanks! My mom always told me I was the best thing to come from that relationship.
Every so often he did try to play dad role - I do have the memory of helping him “build” a road in our old town when i was about 10. He took me with him on the job one day and I got to push the buttons to dump the loads and fill out (I’m sure phony - as in he did the real copies) the paperwork.
It sounds like he had moments of wanting to be a better dad/person, because that sounds like a really cool day! Too bad he couldn’t didn’t sustain it. I’m sorry.
I totally agree - but I think he was definitely more of a boy-dad than a girl-dad and maybe just didn’t know how to sustain it. I think him and my brother have a great relationship from what I have seen (but I didn’t see them except once between my brother’s age of 2-19).
We did camp and like ride snow machines one winter and four wheelers and fish one summer.
I was thinking about something like this. The person taking the video knows they forgot and just let them wreck without trying to beep or anything. Cruel
Flashing headlights probably would have helped. Drivers usually notice those. I would have done that plus pointed my hand upwards… so they’d know what you were flashing for.
My dad was a dump truck driver and this happened to him once when I was about 5. He broke his back in the accident. It’s actually one of the first memories I have of him
This is wild, my first memory of my step father was going with my mom to see him after he broke his back. He was a fire fighter and fell 3 stories to the pavement. He laid in bed for months after discharge, and was back to full duty within two years.
I’m glad he recovered ok, broken backs are obviously not good. My dad broke his when I was about 8, and it was the beginning of his end, unfortunately. He had substance abuse issues beforehand, but the mountain of painkillers he was prescribed sure didn’t do him any favors. He was a very troubled man, but ultimately, he was a good man. Although he died divorced, and mostly shunned by his offspring, he managed to turn his shit around before he died from a completely unrelated accident. However, it has steadfastly turned me and one other sibling off of pain medication completely. I had a vasectomy and raw dogged that shit with OTC ibuprofen, asprin, and the 2 BIG ASS Xanax’s that my doctor insisted I take. One was x number of precise hours before the procedure, and the second was taken immediately after the procedure was completed.
Attention people who don't care to find a source: This happened today in Barrie, ON, Canada. All accounts say that vehicles encountering this guy were honking their horn and trying to get the driver's attention, all to no avail. Honking was attempted.
And if you say "they didn't try hard enough", then you've never attempted to communicate to a truck driver during a snow storm. It isn't as easy as just yelling and honking and hoping for the best.
I drive a tractor-trailer truck (semi truck) and even in one of those just the diesel engine is too loud to hear over.
That said: this driver was definitely not paying attention. I look in my mirrors constantly to keep track of my truck and trailer's position and my surroundings. I'm operating a 60,000lbs+ machine I don't get the luxury of zoning out
Yeah they should have felt it too. As others have pointed out too these guys are frequently overworked and exhausted. Not that that's an excuse but it's very likely a factor here
It sounds like a pretty good excuse to me. When you're overworked and exhausted, it's impossible to keep focus 100%. You will make mistakes especially when doing tasks that require constant attention.
I'm sure this guy was more focused on where his blades were than his mirrors or bed. The guys that blow me away are the semi truck drivers carrying oversized loads that hit bridges. You get your route when you put in for the permit, and on top of that you think you'd do your own research to make sure your route is going to be okay.
10 or so years ago I encountered an 18 wheeler on the Huchinson-Merritt Parkway (NY/CT border) who was approaching a low bridge. For those that don't know, all "Parkways" in NYS are passenger vehicle only for this very reason.
I wound up passing him, getting in front of him and slowing down to a crawl and preventing him from passing me, with my hazards on, and my arm out the window signaling for him to pull over onto the shoulder.
He FINALLY pulled over and got out of his rig ready to legit fight me. Baton in one hand, clenched fist the other. He was PISSSSSSSSSED! Until I said "THAT [points at bridge] only has 9 feet of clearance!". He looks at me, looks at the bridge, looks at me, looks at the bridge and then you could see the realization dawn on his face. Then he bursts out laughing and shook my hand. Got him back in his truck and he took the exit ramp at that bridge. Probably saved his job and some heavy fines from the police.
I get it, but the more I think about it... Bad weather, the danger of the plow blade... I think the safest option here was to let him hit the bridge. It sucks but... No one died.
My situation was much safer. It was a nice sunny summer day, no plow, driver wasn't working 30+ hours (presumably)
Triggered redditors don't wanna believe it. "Humanity is lost" mentality. "He needs to be locked up" "if I was there I would have gotten out and ran to the truck"
I love this website any time any accident happens so I can read about all the ways a bunch of redditors would have easily saved the day. Floods, fires, hurricanes- reddit is prepared to handle it all.
They don't, the interior is barrel-shaped so the salt all goes down, then it has an auger that pushes the salt back until it comes out and hits a rotating plate that flings the salt out over the road. There's no need to raise it like this for normal operation. It functions just like the ice cube dispenser in a freezer, push button and it just shoves ice cubes to the front and down the chute
They're saying it's not entirely his fault. There could be circumstances beyond forgetfulness. The company may also be to blame if they are overworking him.
Focusing on the semantics of the precise wording used in that comment obscures the point the commenter was trying to make.
EDIT: A lot of confusion in replies to this comment. I have edited to clarify. Turning off reply notifications.
Right. I'm not on any one side.
Just saying that forgetfulness is a symptom of exhaustion. Exhaustion in and of itself does not prevent someone from pressing the switch to lower the cargo.
So if he was exhausted, then it can be explained away by him simply forgetting to lower it due to his supposed exhaustion.
Some peole hate snowplowers. Its possible the driver just thought this guy is a hater. Only way I see I could stop this is if you pass him, put emergency lights on and slow down full stop and tell him. Also it might be loud as fuck, plow scratching road, the truck and driver might not hear any honking.
Some people hate snowplower??? Damn it takes special kinds of assholes... Snowplowers are the people that keep the country running during whatever hellstorm winter throws at us.
I drive a plow like this sometimes and one of our trucks got shot a couple years ago. Guy proceeded to lose control in front of the echelon of plows, ditched the car, and was never found.
Its crazy dude. They get deaththreats on the spot irl and a lot other kind of hostality. I can understand that if you sleep poorly and once you do, you are woken up by snowplower it can be infuriating. But as you said the work is mandatory and the guy is just doing his job.
I used to live right near a port. I'd regularly get woken up by a ship using their horn. I was just a child, yet I never once complained. Let alone for something like a snow plow that is 100% necessary. And they're really not all that loud.
If it's going to be a regular thing where you live, just buy a white noise machine. Be an adult and think of ways of masking the sounds.
oh nooooo i'm 10 minutes late because i was behind the snowplow instead of never arriving at my destination because i am dead in a ditch from trying to drive my bald tire nissan altima on the unplowed road
I got stuck behind a big one going home one night. I was 3 car lengths behind him going 15mph. My car got absolutely saturated and pelted with road salt the entire time.
But I wasn't mad, glad they were out clearing the roads.
It's also possible that this driver is on the tail end of a 12 hour snow shift where he's been up all night salting and the fatigue finally caught up with him.
That sounds dangerous and stupid. I’m not getting in front of this oblivious idiot. He couldn’t see everyone else trying to get his attention, how’s he gonna see me?
Actually, suprisingly to some, that might've helped. He wasnt using his side mirrors, or they werent properly adjusted, and rear view mirror doesn't work properly when you have a bed like that. at least you know he's looking forward lol. Rough day for him tho. RIP
I don't know how he had his side mirrors. There's no way a driver wouldn't have noticed his bed was in the air, if they bothered to at least glance in 10 km. I drive dump trucks. You set the mirrors so you can see the sides of the truck. For backing in or what. You use the blind spot mirrors (little round bubble mirror) to see farther out.
That's not quite right. You're not allowed when it's multiple plows working in tandem. You CAN however, legally pass as long as no part of the plow is in the lane, truck, plow, or side blade.
No. While there are safety measures like if you open the door without activating the parking brake, the truck will honk its horn. But dump trucks and several other trucks are required to move while using PTO devices(like the dump bed) while in motion. The operator is expected to be aware. But operators are human
Like the above comment said, over a certain speed. I cant think of any reason why a dump truck would require the bed to be up travelling at this speed and why there wouldnt be some warning at this speed that the bed is still up, its not like its a very rare error. Surely a warning ding could also be used when the bed is up not matter what anyway. Its not like a number of equipment like this dont have constant noises with certain features.
When hydraulics fail they don't go up. There's a rare chance at mechanical failure or an electrical short raising the bed but it going unnoticed is almost astronomical.
Dude either thought he was low enough or forgot it was up. Chances of this being equipment failure is very, very low.
Yeah it's almost always regional news worth when a bridge strike like this occurs. Its not an every-week kinda thing. At least the snow plow was moving slowly and probably didn't have enough oomph to move the bridge deck out of its abutments like can happen when a dump truck hauling ass in the summer hits one.
I don’t think so. I’m in BC (this is in ontario apparently) and this has happened soooooo much in the last couple years it has basically become a meme at this point lol.
Do you geniuses think it would be safe to drive up beside the plow right before it hit the fucking bridge? This guy had the bed raised for ages. Many people honked at him. This was not the fault of the guy filming for fuck sake
Yeah bizarre that people think this (car) driver had any ability to do anything. In fact, it looked like he stopped before the bridge. Then he just yeeted his truck right into it.
Snow plow driver was probably on minimal sleep and not thinking straight.
Guy tried warning him, search “At The Scene Photography”, and look at Mike’s comment with the video. Not saying he couldn’t have done more, but he did try.
you mf’s will latch onto the most random shit imaginable just to melt down over it. this happened recently in barrie, ontario, and it wasn’t even one driver, multiple people were trying to get the guy’s attention for a good while and he just wasn’t registering any of it
The fact that people nowadays just have to share every single fucking opinion they have on every single fucking topic despite having no context, or any knowledge beyond what's presented in the video.
Or they slowed down and pressed the button that should lower it but there was a malfunction and the driver didn't check and just thought everything went well like always.
I knew I recognized this beside. East St in Westwood, MA. It’s since been replaced by a higher bridge in recent years so this doesn’t happen anymore. Thank god we still have Storrow Drive though.
Okay, I'll play devils advocate and ask what the car driver was actually supposed to do. Try to overtake the truck on a snowy road? Honk in morse code? Blame the truck driver for not putting his bed down.
Every video I've seen with a bed raised has had other drivers trying to warn them. Other than stopping in front of them to block their path, that's all you can do.
I agree. They dont know how/why/if the plow driver is about to fuck up.
There isnt a whole lot of time to honk a warning, once its clear the truck isnt lowering its bed, imo. Idk, weird to me how much blame is being put on the filmer. They haven't seen the future (or seen this like we have yet) and haven't seen how it plays out.
They had apparently been trying to warn him for 10km. I live near where this happened, and it’s not surprising it happened. Truck driver’s in the area are all undertrained and unprofessional
I mean, what is a driver behind them going to do? Honk and everything will get fixed?
If I was honking at a snowplow, I would be more expecting the driver to flip me off then actually have him understand I was trying to tell him something important
Look at how violently the entire cab shoots up to the underside of the bridge in a split second too…. That could easily be death, hopefully he was buckled in.
How though? Have you ever driven in the snow? Just the act of speeding up to try and catch up to the plow could have caused the driver an issue. I wouldn’t have risked my own safety in this situation. We have no idea how icy those roads are at the time of the video.
I would just warn him anyhow, there's really nothing to lose. If he was going to lower it anyhow, no problem and everyone just gets on with their life.
What was he supposed to do? Speed up in the snowy/icy conditions then honk/wave down the driver who would’ve had to take his eyes off the road to see the other driver trying to warn him which could’ve brought someone else into this accident instead of just messing up his own stuff. The person who took the video is at no fault here. It’s not their fault the plow driver forgot to do their job properly.
Those guys work crzzy long hours sometimes in storms, and are hopped up on coffee and mountain dew(and bumpy-bumps) to stay awake often. Im not surprised it happened. I am actually more surprised that it doesnt happen more often.
Is everyone a fucking bot in here? All saying the guy filming shoulda honked! Do you think buddy in the big ass diesel truck with a giant metal blade dragging on the ground was gonna hear some wimpy little horn? lol
I've seen so many YT videos like this, and I'm sure you have, too. This has been happening since dump trucks have been passing under bridges.
How difficult is it to have an indicator light on the dashboard for 'Bed Not Down'? A simple switch, like a refrigerator light? Apply this same revolutionary technology to cranes, snorkel trucks, anything with assemblies that are unsuitable for driving when extended. Too complicated?
I know sometimes they have to open the dump and drive slowly to spread out a load, but why isn't there some interlock that prevents any speed over, say, 5mph with the bucket down (up?) or SOMETHING to prevent this?
I still find it incredible there’s no blaring horn indicating the back is up. My car beeps at me ever 0.4 seconds for not having a seatbelt on but they seemingly don’t have an alarm to warn them the the bed is up while they’re in drive for longer then 10 seconds
Nah. That salt gets compacted in the bed and it’s almost impossible to chisel out. He was just trying to get the remnants out so he can get a clean load when he fills up. Worked perfectly so I’m not sure what the issue is.
Maybe instead of recording... honk, get the person's attention, pretty sure.They will look at their equipment If somebody was honking at them and flashing lights before a bridge
My dad was a dump truck driver and this happened to him once when I was about 5. He broke his back in the accident. It’s actually one of the first memories I have of him - going to see him in the hospital and him giving me one of his get-well teddy bears.
Took a LONG time, but eventually they re-did the bridge he hit - but when we drove by it I would always look for the broken chunk of cement still on the bridge.
Did he recover ok?
He did!
Yay! And did the bridge recover okay?
It lived a long healthy life and even eventually got a face lift.
Right after "eventually" I was expecting you to say that it got hit again haha.
Actually let me do some digging - it may have (and may be why it ended up with a facelift).
Just checked - same highway, different bridge further down was hit.
Haha I am guessing the original govt contractor didn't pay the dump truck association
Glad to hear there was a happy ending!
We have a low bridge in my hometown that has it's own social media pages because it gets hit so often.
My father said he hit it 45 years ago with a Uhaul when he was in college.
Our friends own the uhaul rental company in town, and they make them sign in the contract that they will not go down that road because they've lost so many trucks to it. 🤣
Glenville?
My dream!
not too make light of this, but I found it funny that OP's story ended with "thankfully the bridge is fine now" while we are all wondering what happened to his dad (glad to hear he recovered as well).
When you drove past it, did you ever yell, "Look out dad! It's back for revenge"?
Hahaha if we had a relationship I definitely should have!
Jeez, I hate this story...
It’s all good. His loss 🩷
Well we’re glad to have you here.
Thanks! My mom always told me I was the best thing to come from that relationship.
Every so often he did try to play dad role - I do have the memory of helping him “build” a road in our old town when i was about 10. He took me with him on the job one day and I got to push the buttons to dump the loads and fill out (I’m sure phony - as in he did the real copies) the paperwork.
It sounds like he had moments of wanting to be a better dad/person, because that sounds like a really cool day! Too bad he
couldn’tdidn’t sustain it. I’m sorry.I totally agree - but I think he was definitely more of a boy-dad than a girl-dad and maybe just didn’t know how to sustain it. I think him and my brother have a great relationship from what I have seen (but I didn’t see them except once between my brother’s age of 2-19).
We did camp and like ride snow machines one winter and four wheelers and fish one summer.
My first memory of my mom is visiting her in the hospital. I also don’t have a relationship with her. What are the odds?!
Oh that's sad.
What's the difference between dads and boomerangs?
Boomerangs always come back!
I was thinking about something like this. The person taking the video knows they forgot and just let them wreck without trying to beep or anything. Cruel
Tons of people were honking apparently
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/s/A0Rgs96hS2
With as loud as inside the cabs may be (and it looks like it has a plow so more grinding noises), I’m not sure if a beep of a horn would have helped.
Flashing headlights probably would have helped. Drivers usually notice those. I would have done that plus pointed my hand upwards… so they’d know what you were flashing for.
This is wild, my first memory of my step father was going with my mom to see him after he broke his back. He was a fire fighter and fell 3 stories to the pavement. He laid in bed for months after discharge, and was back to full duty within two years.
I’m glad he recovered ok, broken backs are obviously not good. My dad broke his when I was about 8, and it was the beginning of his end, unfortunately. He had substance abuse issues beforehand, but the mountain of painkillers he was prescribed sure didn’t do him any favors. He was a very troubled man, but ultimately, he was a good man. Although he died divorced, and mostly shunned by his offspring, he managed to turn his shit around before he died from a completely unrelated accident. However, it has steadfastly turned me and one other sibling off of pain medication completely. I had a vasectomy and raw dogged that shit with OTC ibuprofen, asprin, and the 2 BIG ASS Xanax’s that my doctor insisted I take. One was x number of precise hours before the procedure, and the second was taken immediately after the procedure was completed.
Once your dad was recovered from his accident, did he continue the job or change career?
He continued on until maybe 10 years ago - then he lost his CDL and now runs a mechanic shop for the trucks instead.
Attention people who don't care to find a source: This happened today in Barrie, ON, Canada. All accounts say that vehicles encountering this guy were honking their horn and trying to get the driver's attention, all to no avail. Honking was attempted.
And if you say "they didn't try hard enough", then you've never attempted to communicate to a truck driver during a snow storm. It isn't as easy as just yelling and honking and hoping for the best.
I drive a tractor-trailer truck (semi truck) and even in one of those just the diesel engine is too loud to hear over.
That said: this driver was definitely not paying attention. I look in my mirrors constantly to keep track of my truck and trailer's position and my surroundings. I'm operating a 60,000lbs+ machine I don't get the luxury of zoning out
You'd feel the truck feel weird if you attempted to turn to.
Yeah they should have felt it too. As others have pointed out too these guys are frequently overworked and exhausted. Not that that's an excuse but it's very likely a factor here
It sounds like a pretty good excuse to me. When you're overworked and exhausted, it's impossible to keep focus 100%. You will make mistakes especially when doing tasks that require constant attention.
I'm sure this guy was more focused on where his blades were than his mirrors or bed. The guys that blow me away are the semi truck drivers carrying oversized loads that hit bridges. You get your route when you put in for the permit, and on top of that you think you'd do your own research to make sure your route is going to be okay.
For sure, but approaching a bridge would certainly warrant a moment to do a quick spot check that would have caught this
Linehaul dispatcher here. Stay safe out there, Driver.
10 or so years ago I encountered an 18 wheeler on the Huchinson-Merritt Parkway (NY/CT border) who was approaching a low bridge. For those that don't know, all "Parkways" in NYS are passenger vehicle only for this very reason.
I wound up passing him, getting in front of him and slowing down to a crawl and preventing him from passing me, with my hazards on, and my arm out the window signaling for him to pull over onto the shoulder.
He FINALLY pulled over and got out of his rig ready to legit fight me. Baton in one hand, clenched fist the other. He was PISSSSSSSSSED! Until I said "THAT [points at bridge] only has 9 feet of clearance!". He looks at me, looks at the bridge, looks at me, looks at the bridge and then you could see the realization dawn on his face. Then he bursts out laughing and shook my hand. Got him back in his truck and he took the exit ramp at that bridge. Probably saved his job and some heavy fines from the police.
Good job dude! You were about to be shot for doing a good deed.
Great job. That’s what I was thinking for the case in the snowplow video - if only the driver could’ve passed the truck and done what you did.
I get it, but the more I think about it... Bad weather, the danger of the plow blade... I think the safest option here was to let him hit the bridge. It sucks but... No one died.
My situation was much safer. It was a nice sunny summer day, no plow, driver wasn't working 30+ hours (presumably)
The King Street bridge if i'm not mistaken?
Triggered redditors don't wanna believe it. "Humanity is lost" mentality. "He needs to be locked up" "if I was there I would have gotten out and ran to the truck"
Redditors have a serious 'hero complex' to make themselves feel better as though they would do anything different than this person.
I love this website any time any accident happens so I can read about all the ways a bunch of redditors would have easily saved the day. Floods, fires, hurricanes- reddit is prepared to handle it all.
Apparently.
Pffft! I'd just fly counterclockwise around the world to prevent this accident.
Did he die?
He exploded
Dam
No, it was a bridge. Pay attention.
The dam is okay because he hit the bridge.
I'm otterly grateful to hear the dam is ok
twice
The dam is ok. He's definitely dead though
No.
Source
Article says no injuries were reported.
The video has audio. I didn’t hear anything.
My sister used to work on a lawn care crew in the summer.
In the winter they ran snowplows.
These people literally drive for like 24 straight hours to salt as many roads as possible.
He didn’t forget. He is exhausted.
As someone who’s not from a snowy place, it didn’t even occur to me that the trucks drive like that on purpose
Edit: apparently it’s not for that reason? Again, desert-dweller here.
A salt spreader operates with the bucket down. This guy probably just dumped his remaining load and never put it back down.
They don't, the interior is barrel-shaped so the salt all goes down, then it has an auger that pushes the salt back until it comes out and hits a rotating plate that flings the salt out over the road. There's no need to raise it like this for normal operation. It functions just like the ice cube dispenser in a freezer, push button and it just shoves ice cubes to the front and down the chute
I plowed for 21 hours on Tuesday, then left and went to my regular job, I was awake for 36 hours and at work for about 33 of them.
This guy knows.
Insanity. I hope you got the best sleep of your life after that.
People like this do meth bro
Damn, Dua must've been sore after all that
He forgot, because he is exhausted.
They're saying it's not entirely his fault. There could be circumstances beyond forgetfulness. The company may also be to blame if they are overworking him.
Focusing on the semantics of the precise wording used in that comment obscures the point the commenter was trying to make.
EDIT: A lot of confusion in replies to this comment. I have edited to clarify. Turning off reply notifications.
Right. I'm not on any one side.
Just saying that forgetfulness is a symptom of exhaustion. Exhaustion in and of itself does not prevent someone from pressing the switch to lower the cargo.
So if he was exhausted, then it can be explained away by him simply forgetting to lower it due to his supposed exhaustion.
They couldn't give a warning honk or anything?
According to the original post in the Barrie sub, drivers had been honking at him and giving signs that his bucket was up for a stretch of 10km.
If you don't get it by that distance, you'll never understand. This driver is an idiot
Afterwards.... "Oooh THAT'S why they were all honking at me!"
https://i.redd.it/ruynxttg7h6g1.gif
What movie is this?
Planes, trains, and automobiles
Thanks. Added to watchlist for the weekends. (Assuming I'll have the time lol)
You’ll love it !
Planes Trains & Automobiles. It’s hilarious.
Some peole hate snowplowers. Its possible the driver just thought this guy is a hater. Only way I see I could stop this is if you pass him, put emergency lights on and slow down full stop and tell him. Also it might be loud as fuck, plow scratching road, the truck and driver might not hear any honking.
Some people hate snowplower??? Damn it takes special kinds of assholes... Snowplowers are the people that keep the country running during whatever hellstorm winter throws at us.
I drive a plow like this sometimes and one of our trucks got shot a couple years ago. Guy proceeded to lose control in front of the echelon of plows, ditched the car, and was never found.
Unless the vehicle was already stolen I cannot understand how you just "never find" a shooter that ditched a car.
It was stolen yes.
Its crazy dude. They get deaththreats on the spot irl and a lot other kind of hostality. I can understand that if you sleep poorly and once you do, you are woken up by snowplower it can be infuriating. But as you said the work is mandatory and the guy is just doing his job.
I used to live right near a port. I'd regularly get woken up by a ship using their horn. I was just a child, yet I never once complained. Let alone for something like a snow plow that is 100% necessary. And they're really not all that loud.
If it's going to be a regular thing where you live, just buy a white noise machine. Be an adult and think of ways of masking the sounds.
You're asking a lot of the general public with that one
Well they hate that they're 'in the way' more so. I've seen it, road rage at a city snowplow driver.
oh nooooo i'm 10 minutes late because i was behind the snowplow instead of never arriving at my destination because i am dead in a ditch from trying to drive my bald tire nissan altima on the unplowed road
Hey screw you! I drive an accord, and only half the tires are bald! Get out of my way!
I got stuck behind a big one going home one night. I was 3 car lengths behind him going 15mph. My car got absolutely saturated and pelted with road salt the entire time.
But I wasn't mad, glad they were out clearing the roads.
Nah don’t make dumb excuses. A simple glimpse in his rear view mirror or side mirror would show that his bed is up
100% driver error and any excuse otherwise is brain dead
Not lowering the bed. Drivers fault 100% Not hearing honking. Not drivers fault. Thats all I mean.
It's also possible that this driver is on the tail end of a 12 hour snow shift where he's been up all night salting and the fatigue finally caught up with him.
But yeah, he's also an idiot.
Fuck me why did I immediately think this looks like southern Ontario and lo and behold
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That sounds dangerous and stupid. I’m not getting in front of this oblivious idiot. He couldn’t see everyone else trying to get his attention, how’s he gonna see me?
Yeah that sounds smart …
Yeah just get in front of the driver who isn't paying attention enough to see their tall ass bed isn't going to clear the bridge in front of them
Actually, suprisingly to some, that might've helped. He wasnt using his side mirrors, or they werent properly adjusted, and rear view mirror doesn't work properly when you have a bed like that. at least you know he's looking forward lol. Rough day for him tho. RIP
I don't know how he had his side mirrors. There's no way a driver wouldn't have noticed his bed was in the air, if they bothered to at least glance in 10 km. I drive dump trucks. You set the mirrors so you can see the sides of the truck. For backing in or what. You use the blind spot mirrors (little round bubble mirror) to see farther out.
Side mirrors could have been iced over too. They freeze fast.
And who has a giant plow on the front of their truck
This happened in Ontario, Canada where its illegal to pass a working snowplow with its lights on.
That's not quite right. You're not allowed when it's multiple plows working in tandem. You CAN however, legally pass as long as no part of the plow is in the lane, truck, plow, or side blade.
I think it’s also illegal to run into bridges with your dump bed?
Well...? Definitely frowned on
I doubt there is a criminal code involving county snow plows striking a bridge because their loader was up
But then he wouldn't get the internet points
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This happened in Canada and numerous people tried to warn the driver but to no avail. We don’t know if the OP was attempting to make contact either.
They have to hold their phone and the wheel first
People honked at this guy repeatedly for many kilometers, he was not paying attention
Or he was in a really loud truck that had a plow scraping along the pavement in front of it, and snowfall muffles sound.
The big truck is scraping the road he’s not gonna be able to hear a damn thing
That plow couldn’t hear a horn over its own noise.
I was thinking this too
There's zero way a dude in a diesel truck is going to hear a car horn coming from fifty feet behind him in a snowstorm and think it's directed at him.
How does this happen? Shouldn't there be an alarm going off in the cab if the bed is raised and the truck is moving over a certain speed?
No. While there are safety measures like if you open the door without activating the parking brake, the truck will honk its horn. But dump trucks and several other trucks are required to move while using PTO devices(like the dump bed) while in motion. The operator is expected to be aware. But operators are human
Like the above comment said, over a certain speed. I cant think of any reason why a dump truck would require the bed to be up travelling at this speed and why there wouldnt be some warning at this speed that the bed is still up, its not like its a very rare error. Surely a warning ding could also be used when the bed is up not matter what anyway. Its not like a number of equipment like this dont have constant noises with certain features.
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When hydraulics fail they don't go up. There's a rare chance at mechanical failure or an electrical short raising the bed but it going unnoticed is almost astronomical.
Dude either thought he was low enough or forgot it was up. Chances of this being equipment failure is very, very low.
Plus this absolutely doesn't happen "a good bit"
Yeah it's almost always regional news worth when a bridge strike like this occurs. Its not an every-week kinda thing. At least the snow plow was moving slowly and probably didn't have enough oomph to move the bridge deck out of its abutments like can happen when a dump truck hauling ass in the summer hits one.
I don’t think so. I’m in BC (this is in ontario apparently) and this has happened soooooo much in the last couple years it has basically become a meme at this point lol.
Do you geniuses think it would be safe to drive up beside the plow right before it hit the fucking bridge? This guy had the bed raised for ages. Many people honked at him. This was not the fault of the guy filming for fuck sake
Yeah bizarre that people think this (car) driver had any ability to do anything. In fact, it looked like he stopped before the bridge. Then he just yeeted his truck right into it.
Snow plow driver was probably on minimal sleep and not thinking straight.
Yeah, but logic or critical thinking is not a thing on Reddit.
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Guy tried warning him, search “At The Scene Photography”, and look at Mike’s comment with the video. Not saying he couldn’t have done more, but he did try.
you mf’s will latch onto the most random shit imaginable just to melt down over it. this happened recently in barrie, ontario, and it wasn’t even one driver, multiple people were trying to get the guy’s attention for a good while and he just wasn’t registering any of it
you don't know what happened so why judge?
The fact that people nowadays just have to share every single fucking opinion they have on every single fucking topic despite having no context, or any knowledge beyond what's presented in the video.
It's almost as bad as people making assumptions about things they have no clue about
Poor guy, probably up all night
The plow driver slowed down before going. I think they knew it was up and just misjudged the height difference
Or they slowed down and pressed the button that should lower it but there was a malfunction and the driver didn't check and just thought everything went well like always.
Oh I didn’t think of that. Still a dumb move regardless.
... did the driver survive?
It looks like the cab smashed into the bottom of the bridge.
No injuries https://www.ctvnews.ca/barrie/article/snow-plow-gets-stuck-under-overpass-shuts-down-major-road/
No injuries is crazy lucky. That guy got absolutely shit whipped inside that cab.
My entire skeleton hurts just watching that whip
This is from my home town. As far as I know he survived
Did he survive as in "dusted himself off" or survive as in "currently in critical condition in ICU?"
I knew I recognized this beside. East St in Westwood, MA. It’s since been replaced by a higher bridge in recent years so this doesn’t happen anymore. Thank god we still have Storrow Drive though.
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Okay, I'll play devils advocate and ask what the car driver was actually supposed to do. Try to overtake the truck on a snowy road? Honk in morse code? Blame the truck driver for not putting his bed down.
Every video I've seen with a bed raised has had other drivers trying to warn them. Other than stopping in front of them to block their path, that's all you can do.
I agree. They dont know how/why/if the plow driver is about to fuck up.
There isnt a whole lot of time to honk a warning, once its clear the truck isnt lowering its bed, imo. Idk, weird to me how much blame is being put on the filmer. They haven't seen the future (or seen this like we have yet) and haven't seen how it plays out.
Thank god this douche bag was recording instead of trying to alert the driver. He obviously knew what was gonna happen
They had apparently been trying to warn him for 10km. I live near where this happened, and it’s not surprising it happened. Truck driver’s in the area are all undertrained and unprofessional
That is just plain sad. Lack of training or nurturing a bad work culture is a compounding problem
Thank god you assumed so much
Nice snarky comment my redditor! Got him!
I mean, what is a driver behind them going to do? Honk and everything will get fixed?
If I was honking at a snowplow, I would be more expecting the driver to flip me off then actually have him understand I was trying to tell him something important
There’s videos on fb (search. “At The Scene Photography”) of the OP honking at the driver incessantly well before the bridge.
My thoughts too
Look at how violently the entire cab shoots up to the underside of the bridge in a split second too…. That could easily be death, hopefully he was buckled in.
The truck was basically stopped then all of a sudden slammed the gas and drove right into the bridge. Odd.
He's waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear, because his plow is too wide for a single restricted lane.
How though? Have you ever driven in the snow? Just the act of speeding up to try and catch up to the plow could have caused the driver an issue. I wouldn’t have risked my own safety in this situation. We have no idea how icy those roads are at the time of the video.
Not the onlookers fault that the guy operating state owned heavy machinery is incompetent.
Not only that, it’s been reported several people kept honking to get his attention and also it’s illegal to pass a working vehicle.
Easy to arm chair quarter back should-haves but the easiest one is the state should have employed someone that isn’t stupid.
I would watch this scene and hesitate to warn the plow driver because he probably knows better than me
I would just warn him anyhow, there's really nothing to lose. If he was going to lower it anyhow, no problem and everyone just gets on with their life.
What was he supposed to do? Speed up in the snowy/icy conditions then honk/wave down the driver who would’ve had to take his eyes off the road to see the other driver trying to warn him which could’ve brought someone else into this accident instead of just messing up his own stuff. The person who took the video is at no fault here. It’s not their fault the plow driver forgot to do their job properly.
You have no idea how long he was following him or what preceded tbh is moment. Fucking Reddit clown
Those guys work crzzy long hours sometimes in storms, and are hopped up on coffee and mountain dew(and bumpy-bumps) to stay awake often. Im not surprised it happened. I am actually more surprised that it doesnt happen more often.
Is everyone a fucking bot in here? All saying the guy filming shoulda honked! Do you think buddy in the big ass diesel truck with a giant metal blade dragging on the ground was gonna hear some wimpy little horn? lol
I've seen so many YT videos like this, and I'm sure you have, too. This has been happening since dump trucks have been passing under bridges.
How difficult is it to have an indicator light on the dashboard for 'Bed Not Down'? A simple switch, like a refrigerator light? Apply this same revolutionary technology to cranes, snorkel trucks, anything with assemblies that are unsuitable for driving when extended. Too complicated?
Why don't trucks have like light on the dash saying the box is up or something?
Ok but your tires need air
It’s common for people’s snow tires to not have tire pressure sensors, which causes the warning light to turn on all winter.
Shouldn't they have some sort of indicator or alarm in the cab to let them know its up since people are too stupid to remember or even check
I know sometimes they have to open the dump and drive slowly to spread out a load, but why isn't there some interlock that prevents any speed over, say, 5mph with the bucket down (up?) or SOMETHING to prevent this?
I still find it incredible there’s no blaring horn indicating the back is up. My car beeps at me ever 0.4 seconds for not having a seatbelt on but they seemingly don’t have an alarm to warn them the the bed is up while they’re in drive for longer then 10 seconds
If driver wasn't wearing his seat belt his head must have smacked the interior ceiling pretty damn hard...
Had this happen in Ohio not to long ago...Both the driver and the passenger went thru the windshield.
Did they live?
Boss, you ain’t gonna believe this
I wonder if he was wearing a seatbelt lol. That had to be jarring
ex snow plow driver
Oh fuuuuuuuudge…
Nah. That salt gets compacted in the bed and it’s almost impossible to chisel out. He was just trying to get the remnants out so he can get a clean load when he fills up. Worked perfectly so I’m not sure what the issue is.
It's warmed up a bit today, so it's all water under the bridge now.
You’d think there would be some kind of alarm to notify drivers their bed is up while in motion.
I can't believe there isn't a warning light or beep in the dashboard for this, how fucking hard would that be to have installed.
So much time to help the man out. Honk! Flash your lights! Be a good human! 🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️🤦🏽♂️
Don’t let him know or anything. At least they got a cool video
And the jackass cameraman sits in the middle of the road filimg and blocks traffic
How are you not permanently on the horn here?
I like the part when the guy filming started honking his horn and tried to tell the driver when he saw it coming. Oh wait
Why not honk like a maniac
Maybe instead of recording... honk, get the person's attention, pretty sure.They will look at their equipment If somebody was honking at them and flashing lights before a bridge