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Many Philadelphia residents may have heard the news today that yesterday’s bridge collapse in Washington state was caused by a semi-truck accident. Apparently, the truck was carrying an oversized load, causing it to strike an overhead bridge girder, which in turn caused the bridge to collapse.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured when two vehicles plunged into the Skagit River as the bridge went down. Truck accidents, and of course bridge collapses, often result in catastrophic if not fatal injuries.
The truck accident and the subsequent bridge collapse took place Thursday at about 7 p.m. on the four-lane Interstate 5 bridge, which is near Mount Vernon and about 60 miles north of Seattle. The tractor-trailer was hauling drilling equipment when the right front top corner of the load struck several of the bridge’s trusses.
The trucking company has stated that the company had a permit that specifically allowed it to carry the oversized load across the bridge and that it also had a local escort navigate the route.
The Department of Transportation has confirmed that the trucking company did have a permit. The DOT spokesman said, however, that it is ultimately the trucking company’s responsibility to determine whether a load can pass through a specific route.
However, it has also been reported that there were no signs near the bridge’s entrance in regard to its clearance height.
While this truck accident occurred on a very large scale, it illustrates some of the issues that are common in many truck accidents. In most truck accidents, the trucker, the truck company, and the county or state may need to be investigated. In many cases there might be a combination of factors that led to an accident–like an oversized load, a permit that perhaps should not have been issued and poor infrastructure. Truck accidents are caused by a number of reasons and it is always important to get to the bottom of what caused a particular accident, both in order to obtain compensation for any accident victims and so that the trucking industry and the federal agencies that regulate this industry are aware of such safety concerns.
Source: CBS News, “Bridge collapse in Washington state blamed on tractor-trailer,” May 24, 2013