Tall Vehicles, Low Bridges

February 4, 2013

Firefighters remove injured passengers from a bus that hit an bridge as it traveled on Soldiers Field Road in the Allston neighborhood of Boston on Saturday night. Officials said the bus carrying 42 people was traveling from Harvard University home to Pennsylvania when it struck the overpass. (Boston Fire Department)

What was supposed to be an exciting high school field trip to Harvard turned into a nightmare.

Saturday night, a charter bus carrying a group of Pennsylvania students and their chaperons slammed into the Western Avenue Bridge as it was traveling on Soldiers Field Road.

The crash injured 35 students, with four passengers in critical condition and one with life-threatening injuries.

State police believe the driver, who was not impaired at the time of the accident, may have missed a sign that prohibits buses from traveling on that road due to the height of the bridge.

We explore high- and low-tech solutions for keeping trucks and buses off of restricted roads.

Guests:

SJ Port, spokesperson, Department of Conservation and Recreation
Edward Friedman, co-founder and president of TeleType Co.
Marleen Winer, co-founder and vice-president, TeleType Co.

More

Radio Boston on the road this morning on Soldiers Field Road. (Darrien Garay/WBUR)

Radio Boston on the road this morning on Storrow Drive. (Darrien Garay/WBUR)

Other stories from this show:

ToyYoda

How often? I drive on storrow drive all the time, since I live in Kenmore Square. The question is not how often? It’s how many seasons are there in a year. The beginning of every semester, especially in September, when students move, there is always a rental truck that manages to get itself stuck under the bridge.
http://www.fibrowitch.net Jan Dumas

Please leave the bridges and park land alone. We can’t idiot proof the city. The bus driver was not paying attention to his driving, sad that people were hurt but it’s not the roads fault.
Sally Persing

Please note: This is a great photo, but the bus was nowhere near Storrow Drive, he was on Soldiers Field Road. Here are accurate photos and an intelligent discussion of what happened: http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-bus-crashed.html?spref=fb
- http://radioboston.wbur.org/ Alex Kingsbury
  
  Thanks, Ms. Persing. We talked with Paul Levy this afternoon about this very report: http://radioboston.wbur.org/2013/02/05/a-question-of-signage
- Meghna Chakrabarti
  
  Hi Sally,
  
  Thanks for your post. I hope you heard our discussion with Paul Levy today. Also, please note that though our pictures above were taken on Storrow Drive, in our radio segment, we drove the entire length… including Soldier’s Field Road, and under the Western Avenue Bridge, where we accruately identified the location of the crash. The pictures might be a little confusing, but our reporting was correct on the radio.

Hosts Meghna Chakrabarti and Anthony Brooks introduce us to newsmakers, big thinkers and artists and bring us stories of relevance to Bostonians here and around the region. Live every weekday at 3.

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Tall Vehicles, Low Bridges