nothin Watch Out For That Bridge! | New Haven Independent

Watch Out For That Bridge!

Brian Slattery Photo

Paul Bass Photo

Public works crews tackled this winter’s snows with modern plow trucks — one of which may not have been modern enough.

At least that’s the explanation the city is offering after an embarrassing accident.

The city bought the nine monster plow trucks for $180,000 apiece. Incessant snowstorms gave the new equipment a workout. The public appreciated the results, as streets were cleared better and faster.

After finishing a shift during one of the storms a couple of months back, a driver took one of the new trucks to get washed at a public works facility at the landfill.

Paul Bass Photo

Afterwards he drove back to the Middletown Avenue public works headquarters. En route the truck hit an Amtrak bridge — and the truck suffered at an estimated $15,000 of damage, according to city public works chief Jeff Pescosolido (pictured).

He was hustling to get back here, and the body didn’t seat all the way down” after the washing, Pescosolido said. Pescosolido said his department is working with the manufacturers, Hine Bros., to keep the cost down” of repair.

Partly at issue is whether the newfangled plow truck had an old-fangled warning system in place for when the body is lifted and then returned in place.

The driver — who received a two-day suspension — said the older trucks did have warnings in place, but this one didn’t.

It locked. There was a malfunction. I thought it was down,” the driver said in a conversation late last week. The problem is these trucks are a little higher than the other trucks. Even if it’s up just a tad, it’s not going to make the bridge. The other truck would have made the bridge.

The other trucks have alarms in them. This one was faulty — the light wasn’t even on in to tell me it wasn’t down all the way.”

The company begs to differ.

The truck damaged by hitting the bridge all warning system were working properly, when the vehicle was delivered,” stated Jay Hine of Hine Bros. in an email message to Independent questions. The vehicle had been in service for approximately three weeks. If there was a problem with the warning systems the driver would have noticed upon his daily inspections.”

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