The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently released a Safety Alert on how oversize loads affect U.S. bridges.
Within the United States, commercial motor vehicles play a major role in carrying goods throughout the nation. When these vehicles carry oversize loads throughout the national highway system, though, it can be detrimental to the safety of bridge structures.
In addition, oversize loads result in more accidents. Most recently, the NTSB was involved in investigations concerning two crashes that both involved oversize loads that ran into bridges. This caused the bridge to partially collapse, endangering the drivers, the load and other motorists in the area.
To avoid additional incidents like this in the future, commercial motor vehicle carriers need permits that allow them to drive across bridges. These permits come from authority figures who have accurate information about the oversize load and can determine whether the load is safe to cross over or under bridge structures on the proposed route.
Permit authorities also need to give the drivers a route map that includes a turn-by-turn route list to help commercial drivers maneuver around bridges that are inadequate for oversize loads.
