The above photo came out yesterday afternoon with the following message from IrishEyez ChesCo:

5:31pm – Roadway is now open

West Whiteland – 1:21pm – 11/19/2024

S Whitford Rd & Spackman Ln – Accident

PD on scene with a vehicle vs bridge with the iron safety beam collapsed and down on a truck. This is at the Amtrak Bridge. Roadway will be closed for an extended period of time.

S Whitford Rd is closed between Clover Mill Rd & Spackman Ln

westwhiteland #irisheyezincidents #accident

Submitted Photos

This is right next to the Whitford Train Station. Whitford is pretty busy. I think somebody told me a few hundred people use this train station every day or almost every day. And the thing about it is commuters have to use this railroad tunnel to get from one side of the station to the other, depending on where they get on and get off.

I even found a video from August that some train spotter who post videos of trains on YouTube posted:

Trains are a mode of transportation and anywhere there are train stations and train tracks, there are underpasses.

And people always say things like “why can’t they change the bridges and tunnels” no matter where it occurs whether it’s Exton like yesterday or the center of Wayne in Radnor Township like a few days ago. The railroads can’t just magically lift and rebuild tunnels everywhere and they won’t because that isn’t going to solve the problem of people in trucks that don’t know the dimensions of what they are driving.

Other things to be considered or when the roads are done when the roads are done, the distance in the tunnel might get a little shorter, but again, most of these people don’t seem to pay attention to the dimensions of the trucks. They’re driving so they don’t even take that into consideration.

But the tunnel like this one on Whitford? It also affects commuters, who have to use the tunnel as pedestrians to cross from one side to the other of the station.

No matter what happens or doesn’t happen with the railroad underpasses, no matter how many warnings or low beams or warning, beams or signs are put up, it’s still up to the truck drivers knowing the dimensions of what they are driving and where it is safe to travel with what they are driving.

I remember when the Waze app came out how it wreaked havoc with railroad underpasses everywhere because the app just saw a better route with less traffic congestion, it didn’t see the underpasses. I don’t know if any of these direction apps have evolved enough to recognize there are railroad underpasses or not. So again, drivers can’t depend just on the app, directing them where to go. They have to know the areas in which they are driving, and that includes the heights and depths of railroad underpasses versus the dimensions of their freaking vehicles.

The driver yesterday could’ve killed himself with that beam coming down or a pedestrian or another car.

So I’m going to get off my soapbox now, but this is as infuriating as the people who drive through our covered bridges with trucks that are too big and destroy them.

Rant over.