Driver of peeled-back bus on Soldiers Field Road to face charge

By adamg on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 8:24am

WBUR reports the driver of the tour bus that hit an underpass in February, injuring 33, will be charged with negligent operation.

Neighborhoods:

Allston

Topics:

Driving

Free tagging:

Soldiers Field Road

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Comments

Samuel J. Jackson, 67, faces

By anon on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 9:07am.

Samuel J. Jackson, 67, faces a criminal charge of operating negligently to endanger, according to a police statement.

On the night of the crash the driver was overheard saying to the police, "I have had it with these motherf***ing overpasses on this motherf***ing road!"

SO

By anon² on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 10:35am.

Is the state planning on charging themselves for not fixing the cars only / low clearance sign that was missing?

Making Excuses

By BlackKat on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 11:01am.

Why should they? Only a part was missing, and that was one of 8 indicators along the route that said "You Should Not Be Here" to the bus driver. He also ignored 4 other signs at the entrance ramp, 2 leading up to the bridge, and 2 on the bridge itself he hit.

But only ONE

By anon on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 12:30pm.

of those signs actually told the driver the height of the obstruction. And that was mounted to the bridge he hit.

Not to mention that the majority of the other signs (like the flapping rubber baby buggy bumper "Cars Only" signs) are not in conformance with MUTCD or MassDOT standards (which itself is a violation of state law). Signs at the entrances to the Big Dig tunnels all show the exact clearance of the roadway. There's no legitimate reason that the same can't be done for the signs at Soldier's Field Road, Storrow Drive, and Memorial Driver as well.

Yes, Billy Bus Driver is primarily responsible for causing this crash. But the DCR bears some culpability here as well for posting inadequate signing in the first place. After all, it's not like this was the first time an overheight vehicle had ever gotten onto these roads before.

Furthermore

By anon² on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 2:09pm.

I believe the route he took, all but the sign on the bridge had been removed for constuctuion, and wasn't up at the time. I know for a fact the large "cars only" bumper sign was missing.

Even With No Bumper - If Not There

By BlackKat on Wed, 04/10/2013 - 5:27pm.

The giant orange and red "DANGER - LOW CLEARANCE" sign the bumper hangs from was still there. So too were the three, smaller (but still big) signs at the ramp too:
Picture of a truck hitting a overpass
"NO TRUCKS OR BUSES"
Picture of a UPS VAN shaped vehicle with a null sign in red.

Finally there is the height sign on the underpass. If going to fast to read such and slow down to a controlled stop, you are driving too fast on the road. Unfortunately too many drivers treat Storrow like a highway when it comes to speed.

I have no idea what the current Federal signage is for such a situation, and maybe ours is non-standard. But the sheer volume of different signs stating Go The Fuck Away should have been more than ample.