So looking at the spec for the Hitachi Zaxis 170w there’s a handy guide which shows the 2-piece boom height (and yes, I know this is a fixed boom, but the height guide gives a closer approximation to the actual position on the 2-piece to the way this fixed boom is) as 3980mm, or about 13ft.
A boniface engineering sliding axle trailer, similar to this one, sits at 840mm bed height, or about 2.75ft. I’d have said from this that the digger must have been under the 16ft 3in limit at around 4820mm or 15.81ft.
To put it another way, the height of the cabin (3130mm) plus the height of the trailer (840mm) is 3970mm, or 13.02ft. That allows 3ft 3in (ish) (983mm) to the 16ft 3in height. Does anyone think that boom looks more than 983mm over the cab?
kr79:
A friend of mine was about 200 metres behind this when it happened he said the digger hit the bridge.
There is road works just before where it happened could the digger have been picked up there?
I thought all motorway bridges had to be at least 5metres high■■?
It was picked up from there. A mate went past while it was being loaded.
GreenMan99:
This pic was posted on Twitter by one of the police accounts, I think taken from the police helicopter.
I’m not convinced the plant truck is the cause? Unless it really was crawling along?
The Tesco lorry was being driven by my mate, he said the low loader driver put his hands up to hitting the bridge.
The bridge was not in use as it was deemed unsafe by structural engineers.
The lorry that hit it was overheight.
End of story.
Don’t be so stupid boy. This is Trucknet therefore the eye witness accounts, photographic evidence, admission of the driver and statement from plod are clearly inferior to the googleazi and there lack of practical experience in plant haulage
It was clearly brought down by an explosive birkini in a fiendish plot by zee Germans in cahoots with a secret agent in his mums spare bedroom to force us into double drive crash box roadtrains.
The thing that surprises me more than anything is that they called upon Ainscough to bring in the heavy lifting gear, their yard is only about five miles away. It would have been more typical to have expected them to use a contractor from the Outer Hebrides.
Muckaway:
The bucket is on back to front and with the teeth pointing down, so the arm is raised higher in the park position than it should be. What’s the chance the height of that “rubber duck” was measured with a different bucket on, coupled the normal way around (it’s in the face shovel position) with it sat with the heal down on the bed as opposed to the teeth? The bucket looks too big for a 17t machine too, it might not be but it could’ve been for a 20odd ton excavator.
Another theory is did the low loader driver assume the rubber duck was the same travelling height as a normal tracked 17t machine?
Well spotted Muckaway.
Regardless of wether the truck hit the bridge or not,it seems to me that the driver wasn’t used to moving plant. It doesn’t matter which way round the rubber duck is,but an experienced loader would have turned the bucket round and crowded it right in.
I’d be surprised if it exceeded 16’6" cos a 14t tracked digger on my 8-wheel flatbed is 14’ with bucket crowded in. And that’s a low trailer. Add a little bit for the wheeled mainframe and the bucket problem,and I’d guess at the 15 to 16 feet mark. Guess being the operative word. I’m as clueless to the cause as anyone else.
Although the rubber duck wasn’t loaded very well,I’m not yet convinced that the truck driver did anything legally wrong. All will be revealed in the fullness of time,as they say
cav551:
The thing that surprises me more than anything is that they called upon Ainscough to bring in the heavy lifting gear, their yard is only about five miles away. It would have been more typical to have expected them to use a contractor from the Outer Hebrides.
The news today said one came from Cardiff the other from Birmingham depots.
newmercman:
I posted earlier that my mate was one lorry behind the low loader when it hit the bridge.
Then the bridge fell down.
When you say ‘mate’, is he from an RDC waiting room, sport a ginger beard and orange overalls, and is ex-SAS? Or does he wear lumberjack shirts and missed the Herald of Free Enterprise by one minute back in March1987?
