Maine is known for many things, but one of them is the old wood covered bridges. We guess it’s part of the charm of living in New England, but we’ve always wondered just how safe those things are. Apparently they’re not sturdy enough to support the weight of a dump truck and we’re not even a little surprised.
Watch police struggle to stop a stolen dump truck.
One tried venturing across an historic bridge in Gorham and fell through, plunging into the waters below, apparently shocking the driver and some other people. Call it our ignorance, but we would be scared to drive a Dodge Charger across one of those things, let alone a truck weighing several tons.
A local report says officials found the dump truck was much too heavy to get across the bridge safely. That’s about the most obvious statement we’ve ever heard. After all, there’s a huge hole in the bridge where the dump truck was.
Reportedly, the bridge is clearly marked with a three ton weight limit. But we bet just like a lot of other signs that one gets ignored most of the time. The dump truck apparently weighed multiple times more than that, so it’s no wonder the thing just ripped through the wood like it was paper.
This is like those bridges with lower clearances that get hit by trucks all the time. People just don’t read warning signs and take them seriously, at least some of the time, and that’s when accidents happen.
Honestly, we’re surprised this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often.
At least the dump truck driver escaped only with minor injuries. We can only imagine what the guy thought in the moment when the bridge gave way under his vehicle. That must’ve been quite the trip.
Image via News Center Maine/YouTube
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