This is another article about another truck driver running into Footscray’s Napier Street bridge.
It begins, in typical fashion, with details about a truck striking one of those bright yellow protection beams attached to the bridge shortly before 4pm Monday.
It goes on to mention that the incident is blocking traffic as well forcing massive delays on the train lines while engineers check that the bridge is feeling okay.
People will soon be noting these delays on social media, given all they want to do is get home and put on some slippers.
Police and VicRoads crews are once again at the scene. They know the drill.
Their offices are literally alongside the bridge, just across the road from Maribyrnong Council’s offices, so that helps them all get there without having to walk too far at all.
A VicRoads spokesman is likely to encourage traffic to go down Hyde Street or Moreland Road and Whitehall Street, which seems a good idea in the circumstances.
The crash follows the same kind of crash earlier this month and two similar incidents in April and well more more than 70 such crashes into the four-metre bridge in the last decade.
⚠ Werribee/Williamstown lines: Major delays clearing after a motor vehicle struck the Napier St overbridge near Footscray.
Engineering staff have attending and certified the bridge for normal operation.
Please check platform displays and listen for announcements. pic.twitter.com/uA544sNzJj
— Metro Trains (@metrotrains) June 25, 2018
Around about here, we point out that there are signals that flash and flash and warn the drivers to please for the love of all that is good stop and direct them to alternate routes.
This is the line where we mention there are also a further 28 advance warning signs and five height detection devices around the bridge.
So far we haven’t mentioned this petition to Paint Footscray’s Napier Street Bridge With Scary Shark Teeth, but we might as well because not much else is helping.
Did we mention last time this happened that protection beams on the bridge were last year realigned at a cost of $600,000 to further improve safety around the bridge last time? Most likely.
We tend to also point out that the penalty for failing to obey a low clearance bridge warning sign is $793, yet there is no loss of demerit points. People tend to find that part strange.
Some seem to think the drivers are to blame, some the transport companies, others the fact trucks are allowed on this route in the first place.
The one point on which all seem to agree is that the lack of shark teeth on the bridge is an exacerbating factor.
Greens candidate for the state seat of Footscray, Angus McAlpine, has floated his own idea to stop the trucks crashing into the bridge.
“Both my uncles are truck drivers, and nothing scares them more than a servo with no warm pies,” he said.
“Maybe a ‘no warm pies for 2,000km’ on Napier street bridge will stop the crashes?”
Despite an idea people tend to often suggest on Facebook, VicRoads has no plans to lower the road under the bridge and truck drivers appear to have no plans to stop crashing into the bridge.
Stay tuned for further details on the Napier Street bridge’s next scheduled truck strike.
