The Gregson Street Guillotine’s greatest hits: Dave combines two of his passions as LiveLeak meets Google Street View.
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Click here for a March, 2007 article about the bridge
Someone with too much time on their hands has made this blogger very happy. They have gathered videos of the South Gregson Street railroad bridge into a “best of” compilation.
Anyone who has followed STATter911.com closely may recall that Dave has been fascinated by this spot in Durham, North Carolina since about May of last year. But it has been a while since I have posted a video. I am hoping this makes up for lost time.
The bridge has been slicing and dicing box truck tops for many years, despite warnings and NCDOT’s placement of a crash beam just before the bridge in Spring, 2003 (click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page).
It has been dubbed the “Gregson Street Guillotine” by some. It is just a Norfolk Southern railroad overpass on a one-way street in downtown Durham that was built many years before modern standards, under NC regulations, required a minimum bridge height of 14-feet, 6-inches. The best I can tell is that these crashes have happened about four times per year since 2000.
Now with Google’s Street View I have added a whole new dimension to the Gregson Street experience.
Click the image above to tour the area with Google Street View. Comparing Street View with the video, it appears the video camera is mounted somewhere on the building at 24 West Jefferson, but I couldn’t find it (speaking of people with too much time on their hands).
Clearly there are big signs to the right and left indicating the maximum height for vehicles. It also has one of those flashing lights that activates if the truck is too high. Still, people hit the crash beam and the bridge.
I am fascinated by this continuing problem, not because I like to see property damage happen, but because it is continuing. How many more warnings do drivers need? Is it because truck drivers don’t know the height of their vehicles? Or is it because they are too busy talking on the cell phone or texting to pay attention to the signs around them?
On that final question, how many of those drivers who have had a little taken off the top said something like this to the person on the other end of the phone: “I wonder what that flashing light …. Oh @#$%!!!!” ?
A view of the back side of the crash beam and the underbelly of the much abused bridge.
