Officials Demand Change After Another Big Rig Driver Strikes Overpass On Hutchinson River Parkway
RYE BROOK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A big rig was ripped apart with more than half its metal exterior torn off when a driver tried to squeeze through a highway overpass in Westchester County.
It's a problem drivers and officials alike say is all too common, particularly on the Hutchinson River Parkway.
The driver of the truck tried to hide his face on Monday as he blamed his partner, who was navigating on a smartphone instead of a commercial GPS.
"He sent me down this road," the driver exclaimed. "This was the result of him sending me down this road right here."
His partner deflected the blame back onto the driver.
"He knows he made a mistake," said Cardell Talton of Atlas Moving. "As a driver you go to school for stuff like this, you should know what signs to look for to know we shouldn't be on this road."
The men were driving a moving truck from Delaware to Connecticut when they struck the King Street Bridge. A sign says the clearance is nine feet, six inches, but the truck the men were in stands more than 11 feet tall.
"It was very loud, bumping up in the air," said Talton. "Hit my head on the ceiling."
The roof of the truck peeled open like a sardine can. Pieces struck a passenger vehicle driven by a Connecticut woman. She was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Every Parkway entrance has signs advising "Passenger Cars Only." Some points also have detection systems to alert drivers if they're over-height. Still, trucks repeatedly wander onto the Hutch where they strike bridges and snarl traffic.
It's happened in the Bronx on June 27th and in Pelham on June 12th.
Westchester County Executive George Latimer says enough is enough, and is holding a summit on Friday. He says he'll be demanding action from the trucking industry and the state Department of Transportation.
"It's not one thing that we need to do," said Latimer. "It's multiple things that we need to do because there are multiple reasons why drivers miss what information is out there already."
Charges against the driver were still pending late Monday, while his employer faced a big bill. A tow truck company owner tells CBS2's Tony Aiello the average cost for removing a truck from a scene similar to Monday's is around $30,000.