Transportation
Durham's Bridge of Death Will Decapitate Any Tall Truck
For years, a North Carolina man has documented an 11-foot-8-inch-tall bridge's amazingly destructive effect on passing traffic.
What's the difference an inch can make? At one underpass in Durham, North Carolina, it means either having an uneventful commute or getting the top of your vehicle peeled off in a loud and violent can-opener-type crash.
Big signs and flashing yellow lights alert drivers that the railroad trestle at Gregson and Peabody streets is 11 feet and 8 inches tall. Some drivers don't see these signs or choose to ignore them. That's inevitably a mistake. About once a month, the neighborhood's birds are shaken from their roost by the booming echo of the trestle whittling a too-tall truck down to the proper height.