...The semi was headed west when its raised bed slammed into the overhead sign near mile marker 200 as it approached the I-64/I-295 split.
Virginia State Police said the crash happened shortly after 9:30 a.m.
"The cab continued on and then stopped, obviously, because it had separated from the bed of the tractor-trailer," Matt Demlein, a spokesperson for Virginia State Police, said. "We're still investigating as to what led up to it actually hitting the sign. It was empty at the time."
Troopers do not know why the bed was raised or how long it was up before the crash. But officials said the truck had stopped at a weigh station about a mile earlier, which is equipped with cameras...
The driveshaft popped off, rammed in the road and flipped up the entire trailer, it’s rare but it happens and it’s cool every time.
Tell me you've never looked under a tractor-trailer unit without telling me you've never...
There is no driveshaft to the trailer axles lmao.
That's a hydraulic lifter, not a driveshaft. The bed was raised and hit the sign.
I have a bridge near me that gotten taken out similarly. I wonder if it was this I was assuming the driver forgot to put it back down. Driver in my case got injured and I have a couple extra miles commute for a year. Good news is the bridge is almost fixed!
If that's the case, why did they arrest the driver on reckless driving? Sounds like pure accident. Even if it was negligent maintenance, that's not the driver's fault, that's on the trailer owner. Right? (IANACDL 😄)
That doesn't mean the driver was actually driving recklessly just that police think he was. It says he was just at a weigh station prior to the accident so maybe it was some fluke that caused it to raise up after he left.
Maintenance would be on the driver since it's his responsibility to shut down the truck. U-Joint failures happen (on the tractor), but should be inspected daily (finger quotes).
Doesn't matter though, cause he left his bed up. There's no driveshaft on the trailer. If there were, it would take forever to hook a trailer lol.