Trust us…it’s not going to end well for this truck as it attempts to squeeze under this low bridge in Durham, N.C.We checked in to see if the infamous can opener bridge in Durham, N.C. is still shaving the tops off trucks that are riding too high for its low 11-foot, 8-inch clearance.
And it just so happens that on Sunday the top of another truck (Crash #122) experienced the sardine can-opening effect of this tough, old train-trestle. A truck warning system was installed last year to help, but trucks keep coming.
Sunday’s crash was a little different. A moment or two after the Enterprise straight truck comes literally to a grinding halt, a back-up beep kicks in as the driver puts the truck in reverse and inches away from possibly the most infamous can opener bridge in the country. Nearby motorists are none too thrilled and honk at the truck as it slowly backs away from its humbling opponent.
“Yesterday, a rental truck turned right from Peabody St. onto Gregson St. only to get chewed up by the can opener. The low clearance is clearly marked, but there is no height sensor and the bridge does ambush you a bit when you make that turn with a truck. To make things worse, shortly after the truck suffered the involuntary roof removal, it started to rain,” Jurgen Henn writes on his YouTube site where he’s posted dozens of collisions with the bridge. Henn has counted 122 accidents so far.
Henn sells pieces of ‘crash art’ on his website, 11foot8.com.Henn, a Duke University employee, began posting videos of the truck collisions from his nearby office window in 2008. He added another camera across the street in 2009. He created the website, 11foot8.com, to document the crashes and to sell what he calls ‘crash art’–small remnants of trucks torn-off by the bridge that are often left in strange and comical curlicue shapes. Henn’s got quite a following. His YouTube site has dozens of crash videos along with 24,282 subscribers.
“So frequently do trucks crash into the 11-foot-8 clearance trestle, that the railroad company installed a crash beam in front of it,” Henn writes on 11foot8.com. “This massive steel I-beam bears the brunt of the impact, protecting the structure that supports this fairly busy railroad track. Believe it or not – they already had to replace the beam once!”
Henn said he’s not aware of any injuries associated with the bridge collisions–just wounded egos and clean-up work.
A warning system was installed last year, but Henn said trucks still keep running into the bridge.
“The new sign is combined with a traffic light that stops traffic when an over-height truck approaches. Yet, when the bridge is hungry, it will eat,” Henn writes on his YouTube site regarding Crash #108 (video posted below).
