Nitwit Trucker Drives Too Tall Rig Through Too Low Lincoln Tunnel

[chefcraig]

Perhaps he should have let the air out of the tires...much like the old joke about the tunnel being 13 ft high, the truck 13 and a half, the trucker looks to his partner and says: "I don't see any cops, let's go for it!"...exept for the fact this actually happened.

Picture of truck: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/ny...pagewanted=all

A Texas trucker unwittingly made headlines after destroying his company trailer by dragging it a mile and a half through New York’s Lincoln Tunnel.

According to the New York Times, Giberto Cantu was hauling plumbing fixtures and toilets from Weehawken, NJ, toward Manhattan on Thursday, May 31, when his 13.5-foot-tall trailer met the 13-foot high central vein of New York’s three-chamber Lincoln Tunnel.

Cantu didn’t stop until he was out of the tunnel, and news photos showed the trailer’s top ripped off like a metal can.

An electronic sensor is tripped when vehicles too tall for the tunnel approach it, but Cantu ignored several stoplights and police officers using loudspeakers to tell him to stop, the Times reported.

Trucks that are too tall are turned back once a week, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Spokesman Steve Coleman told the Times.

Cantu told the Times he “didn’t know where he was going.”

Cantu is an employee of U.S.A. Logistics Carriers of McAllen, TX. The company’s Web site says the company was founded to serve “the specific needs of the maquila industry that is fast emerging along the United States/Mexico border,” and boasts of GPS devices that allow shipping customers to view their product’s trailer by satellite photos triggered every 30 minutes.

A company spokesman told the Times Cantu had driven for U.S. A. Logistics for four years and had a clean safety record.

“This is going to cost us and it’s going to cost him,” said Roy Guzman, the company’s safety director.

Cantu was issued nine misdemeanor moving violations in the accident, including reckless driving, failure to obey a traffic signal and failure to obey an officer’s command, according to the Times.

Source: http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_ne.../060407-03.htm

[jimmy812]

It's usually a little rough at first when the rig is too big for the tunnel but eventually it works out.

[ZeoBandit]

Now it is a convertable trailer. It's all good.

Better be careful, MonkeyBoy, when you go through low tunnels!

[smithjc]

That's just who I thought of whenst I read this.

Wow so you can track whatever's being shipped? Wonder how it picked up any signals in that tunnel? And what's maquila?

[willy4pres]

He's a trucker, I doubt his union will let him lose his job.

[Kimmie5150]

He's a trucker, I doubt his union will let him lose his job.

Yep. I'll bet you're right.

[FORD]

He's a trucker, I doubt his union will let him lose his job.

That's assuming he's union. Given the company that he works for, that's questionable, since they seem to be the definition of cheap labor types......

From Wikipedia.....

A maquiladora or maquila is a factory that imports materials and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly or manufacturing and then re-exports the assembled product, usually back to the originating country.

"Maquiladora" is primarily used to refer to factories in Mexican towns along the United States–Mexico border, but increasingly is used to refer to factories all over Latin America. Maquiladora factories encompass a variety of industries including electronics, transportation, textile, and machinery, among others. Maquiladoras may be 100% foreign-owned (usually by U.S. companies) in most countries. The use of maquiladoras is an example of offshoring. Other countries such as Japan, Germany, and Korea have maquiladoras as well, but the majority of them are located in Mexico and are associated with United States' companies.[1]

The term "maquiladora", in the Spanish language, refers to the practice of millers charging a "maquila", or "miller's portion" for processing other people's grain.[2]

[RRMB]

As a truck driver, I personally avoid going to NYC proper. I will find the most direct route AROUND that God-foresaken shit hole. As a driver, you are to avoid the Lincoln Tunnel at all costs; UNLESS..there's no other way. The tunnels for the trucks are listed at 13' 6 1/2". But, if they just repaved or if you bounce on the POS road, you just "topped your trailer."

This dumb ass has NO excuse. When you've got warning lights flashing, cops trying to stop you, etc., and you STILL do this; it only proves that you're fucking idiot and shouldn't be driving a truck.

Another FYI; 98% of your OTR drivers ARE NOT union. The only Union OTR drivers I'm aware of out here are UPS, Roadway/Yellow and Fed-Ex COMPANY drivers (not O/O's). If this twit isn't fired, he's better consider himself lucky. But most likely he'll be fired.

What remains to be seen is the results of his "Whizz Quiz." Because of this, he's required to take one, UNDER DIRECT SUPERVISION, to see if he's under the influence of any alcohol or drugs.

And, YES, I have topped a trailer. In Chi-town under an EL. I was following the directions to a "T" when all of a sudden I came to an abrupt halt and heard the scrunching of aluminum behind me. I had been out, on my own, for a week at the time. Since then, over 500,000 accident free miles. Most people don't even drive that many miles in a lifetime.

[Yesterdays]

Shows what an impression you make, Monkeyboy, in that the majority of us were thinking of you when we read the title to this thread. Take it for what its worth. I certainly didn't mean anything bad.

[5150]

Makes me glad I drive a flatbed.

You're all right, this guy should be fired for ignoring all the warnings. Shit, over in Jersey, you ignore a cop, you're likely to be looking at the barrel of a bullet-propulsion device. I'm suprised at how many truckers that can't read or write are able to keep their jobs.