A semi truck nearly made it under an 11’10” overpass in Champaign, Ilinois, but fell short and got stuck under the bridge on Tuesday morning.
It happened on July 25th at approximately 7:30 a.m. at the Springfield Avenue overpass.
According to the Champaign Police Department, the semi was traveling on Springfield Avenue when it struck the roof of the bridge, apparently ignoring the posted warnings of the low ceiling.
The bridge was marked with an 11’10” height clearance, significantly lower than the typical 13’6″ tall semi truck.
No one was injured in the accident, but it did take crews over 3 hours to extract the truck and transfer the contents of the trailer to another truck.
Champaign Public Works Director Dennis Schmidt says that a series of flashing lights and signs are in place to warn truckers of the low clearance, but that trucks still get stuck all the time.
“When the semis or higher trucks are trying to go under these viaducts that run east-west here, they really need to pay attention to the signs,” said Randy Beach, an officer of the Champaign Police Department.
“There’s height limit signs before they get to the viaduct. They need to pay attention to that and make sure they’re heeding those warnings before they try to pass under the viaducts,” Beach added.