On Bridges
It’s time for your fifth lesson in stoopidity. This time, it’s got nothing to do with the Internet. This is some local stoopidity that Mari found entirely too stoopid.
With all the hullabaloo over the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse, there has been an inspection of bridges pretty much nationwide (correct Mari if she’s wrong. Anyway, at the least, Pennsylvania has checked its bridges thoroughly and rickety bridges that you never quite felt right driving on were reaffirmed by an agency to be dangerous.
In Beaver County, PA, where Mari lives, there are bunches of bridges. Naturally, having the Beaver River and the Ohio River as well as hundreds of creeks, you go over at least 20 bridges just going to the store and running daily errands. The possibility of a bridge collapse is not something you think of…until you read about it in the news or hear about it.
The Fallston Bridge from the Fallston side at an angle.
The Fallston Bridge from the New Brighton side. Notice the metal deck.
The pictures were from the photo gallery Historic Bridges.org.
Some guy drove over THAT bridge (which was built in 1884 according to the info page on Historic Bridges.org) with a full-sized tractor-trailer.
The Fallston Bridge over the Beaver River has a [safety] rating of 2 out of 100 when it comes to structural integrity.
That’s why police say a trucker is very lucky he didn’t end up in the river today [Wednesday] after ignoring the posted weight limit signs, and driving his truck over the bridge.
New Brighton police say a witness called to tell them the overweight truck slowly crossed the bridge this morning.
“When we got the call, I’m thinking, no… it can’t be a full sized tractor-trailer, but it was,” says Officer Ronald Miller. “When we first approached him he said he didn’t even cross that bridge.”
The bridge’s weight limit is marked at three tons, or 6,000 pounds, and police say the truck weighed about 51,000 pounds.
Here’s a video from the local CBS-owned news station, KDKA TV.
Workers at Col-Fin Specialty Steel Corp. in Fallston said they saw the driver, Ruban Eduardo Larosa, stop the rig to check out the posted 3-ton weight limit sign posted on the bridge.
Instead of turning back, police said, Larosa drove the 51,800-pound truck across the bridge.
Workers notified police, who stopped Larosa around 9 a.m
HOW STOOPID WAS THAT?! That has to be the single most glaring lapse of judgment Mari’s ever seen in regards to a local bridge. Mari doesn’t feel safe in her CAR going over the Fallston bridge (which Mari did last week), yet this guy thought, “Eh, it won’t fall into the river…”
Previous Lessons in Stoopidity:
- First Lesson: In Which Mari Delivers A Double Whammy of Stoopid - Star Wars vs. Harry Potter & I Can Has Cheezburger
- Second Lesson: In Which Mari Has Nothing Intelligent To Write - Random is Funny(and Mari is NOT)
- Third Lesson: In Which Mari Makes A Half-Hearted Attempt At Sounding Intelligent - Internet Fighting
- Fourth Lesson: In Which Mari Writes of The TSA - Knife=OK, Pudding=Confiscated
Stoopid Saturday 
1 September 2007, 10:06
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Wow. That was pretty stupid. I like your blog, it’s pretty informative too. But why do you write in the third person? I got confused thinking Mari was your friend or something.
Hey niice site! That is some weird column about bridges but its interesting well keep up the great work and cyaz l8ter!
@Vera
Because Mari can. Period.
@Sami
…lmao, Mari hopes you’re not from Despair. That was the least meaningful comment over four words Mari’s ever seen. If you’re from Despair, you’re getting reported. “Nice site cyalater” is not an acceptable comment.
Someone please restore Mari’s faith in the comment box…
Yeah, that guy was stupid. I really don’t understand why some people can’t follow simple rules meant to save their own life and the lives of others.
Stating a bridge’s weight capacity is there for a reason. The trucker was stupid for trying to cross over the bridge, knowing that his truck is way over the stated capacity.
@Kiera
It just doesn’t make sense. He could have hurt someone other than himself, too.
@Dre
Exactly.
Either the guy was crazy or he was just plain stupid. The bridge was built in 1884?? Whoa, I would be so scared to cross it.
Well, he absolutely had to cross it to make a delivery and there was no other way available I could understand him forcing himself to take the risk. Just like those truckers in (I think it was Alaska?) that have to have specially designed engines and tubing in their trucks to keep the fluids from freezing and have to cross over that shifting ice. But I sincerely doubt that was the case. That really was a total lapse of judgement.
@Kiara
Yeah, it’s ridiculously old. It’s been fixed up a little, but still. Every time you cross it you think you’re going to end up in the river.
@Joana
EXACTLY. There was definitely another way, he was just stupid. In fact, that’s a very little-used road known only to locals. God knows how he got on that road that leads to the bridge.
Ice Road Truckers. Mari’s Dad watched that a lot on the History Channel. It’s pretty crazy how they’re driving over the ice as it’s breaking beneath them!
WOW you’re kidding. I can’t believe someone was that stupid. Ooh let me just ignore the warnings and drive my hugely oversized vehicle over this bridge which could very well collapse and kill me all because I’m too lazy to find an alternate route. Genius. Looks like he almost got the Darwin Award.
@Julie
XD
Which is worse, ignoring the weight limit, or letting a bridge get as low as 2 out of 100?
@Nick
Well, it didn’t GET that low. It’s been that way for a hundred and twenty years. The county has “better” things to spend our tax dollars on, like for instance, raises and bonuses for the commish.
I love these lessons.
Honestly…you know that guy knows how much his truck weighs. they have to weigh them at a lot of places. and there is a big difference in 3 and 51. His brain must have gone missing. That’s the only explination.
@Becca
Mari knows! Mari has the answer!
The river washed his brain away. That has to be it!
Stupid happens everyday. Just yesterday in my city someone got run over at a cross walk and a baby was left in a car and died in the heat. Maybe those are more tragic than stupid… Anyway, a while ago a freight ship hit a bridge and half of it collapsed. And it’s not like it was a tiny bridge either; it was the Sunshine Skyway: big and yellow. XD
Ah, Mari knew exactly what I was talking about! lol I only got to see part of it, but damn was I impressed.
Wow. I’m not sure whether I should be amazed that he made it, or amazed at how stoopid he was. Almost 9 times the weight limit!
@Mallory
That’s awful…but it is because of stupidity, you were right.
It’s funny, we can make smaller and smaller computer chips but we can’t stop crashing into things and making them fall down.
Goes to show you that common sense isn’t that common at all.
@Josh
Indeed! Excellent calculatory skillz!
Wow, that guy is a complete and total moron. He’s incredibly lucky to not have fallen into the stupid river. Geeeeez.
@Angela
Indeed. Morone.
Hahahaha what an idiot. XD I love your site btw.
@Talia
Yeah.
Oh, thank you.
Emz wonders what is going on with Mari’s commenters? Excluding the kooky regulars, they seem to be in the same boat (or should I say truck) as the stoopid driver!
First rule of misst club:
Do not question third person amazingness.
Second rule of misst club:
DO NOT QUESTION THIRD PERSON AMAZINGNESS.
(Sorry, only misst club seems to compare ok to fight club).
Regarding the driver? Emz cannot believe such stooopid people are actually allowed to drive. Freakin’ frightening!
@Emz
XD Thank you, Emz. You’re so nice as to correct Mari’s other visitors for Mari. *gives Emz a cookie*
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