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Truck wedged under Corner bridge

by Hawes Spencer
published 8:55am Wednesday Jan 24, 2007
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There’s a truck squished under the 14th Street bridge in the UVA Corner area, as seen in these photos shot at 8:10am. The vehicle was traveling west on University Avenue when the driver, perhaps unaware of the 10-foot height limit under the railroad bridge, crashed.

According to historian Coy Barefoot’s book The Corner, the bridge, built in 1901, has experienced many such accidents (including one that released live chickens onto the streets). In the early 1990s, the City– hoping to avoid accidents– installed a warning light and siren system. Whether the system was operating properly could not be immediately determined.

Although a very light snow began falling around the time of the accident (and continues to fall), visibility has not yet been severely impaired. Pieces of smashed truck are lying on the street, but traffic is moving steadily around the accident.

The vehicle, a late model International 4300 box truck, bears Virginia license plates and appears to belong to EuroUSA, an international shipping company that moves cars and household goods, and which touts “great rates and ship load of know how.”

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3 comments

  • Outskirts Guy January 24th, 2007 | 5:21 pm

    What a great example of torque. Fun with Physics 101.

    That blizzard this morning sure was a doozy. I think I saw at least 9 flakes before the sun came out.

  • King January 24th, 2007 | 6:51 pm

    EuroUSA actually delivers specialty foods to a number of the area restaurants and grocery stores. Cheeses, meats, seafood, chips, sodas etc. to Foods of All Nations, Bellair Market and similar businesses. EuroUSA is out of Ohio and purchased the former Maryland-based ‘Gourmeco’ sometime in 2006. I’m glad we weren’t expecting an order from them this week!

  • outskirts: life and times in charlottesville » Seinfeld + Mochrie and Sherwood January 25th, 2007 | 7:16 pm

    [...] I hope this doesn’t happen to me while out driving around. I wonder if the accident was due to a metric conversion. 10 feet. 10 meters. Is there a difference? [...]

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