Here in Louisville we have a monument to human stupidity, or what the locals here affectionately call the U of L can opener. This low clearance railroad overpass has been hanging over 3rd Street and snacking on unwary semis for far longer than I've been living here. That structure in the background was a brand new Ford Assembly Plant back in 1916, suspect the railroad dates back at least that long.
Talk about having a bad day... Hardly a week passes here that the can opener doesn't feast on freight at least once. Actually, the can opener is a pair of parallel railroad overpasses about a hundred yards apart, with the other one usually catching the semis headed the opposite direction.
Before everything got 'smart' there was just your usual signage to warn truckers and I don't recall it happening quite as often. More a novelty in 2004. Now though, we've gone high tech with sensors and electronic signs to warn overheight drivers to turn and it's almost a weekly occurrence. Also a local running joke, along with cars crashing into buildings.
While I've seen it happen many times, along with the occasional heeded warning, this was the first time I've gotten the opportunity to snap photos. Was driving back from shooting in my old neighborhood when I happened upon this scene and knew I had to stop. Soon as I could find parking I hiked back and started shooting, even beat LMPD to the scene.
Happened right at the start of rush hour, had traffic backed up like a junkie without their laxative. Think everybody was too busy laughing and taking photos to get too irritated. They knew they were stuck anyways.
Almost made it dude. Wonder what he'd have done if he had managed to scrape on through? I know the U of L Can Opener is far from the only one out there, who else has carnivorous infrastructure?
Oops! We have our fair share here. Low-tech signage or none but truckers trying to take a gap....
But seriously, most drivers develop a sense of where their cars do and don't fit or is it a case of too many days on the road and too many Red Bulls?
Probably a little bit of that, some distracted driving, a little intoxication, the occasional language barrier, and good old fashioned idiocy. At this point I'm not even sure what else they could do to try and cut down on it happening.
What a great comparison... Ahaha
🤣🤣🤣
Thank you. Lol, as soon as I thought of it I knew I had to use it.
That's what they call a big oof. @sapadetzero, check this out whenever you're online again!
Ha, yeah, a good way to have a bad day. Lol, what do you even say after doing something like that?
The driver should have taken care first and should have seen that the vehicle cannot pass through the space, then such a problem could have been avoided.
You would think so, but judging by the frequency that this occurs there's a lot that's not doing that.
Yeah you are right.
Damn!
What kind of person is that?
I’m sure the person knows that the trailer can’t pass under that bridge but decided to give it a risk
Nice pictures though
The kind of person that's in need of a new job I suspect. Lol, sometimes life teaches the best lessons about risk :)
Thank you!
Thank you!
I so much love the pictures you took. Black and white background is looking so awesome
Thank you!
It's such a big goof! Either the driver was not looking properly or he was not intelligent enough. So he got gut stuck.
This is really a beautiful view of the black and white background and this is making it quite interesting