Jalopnik:
Sydney has been having a big problem with oversized trucks driving into tunnels that are too low. So Sydney needed a stop sign that is absolutely impossible to miss. Here it is and it’s amazing.P
It’s a curtain of water with a stop sign projected onto it.
I don’t know – it seems like they might scare the daylights out of the driver and cause even more havoc.
That’s a fucking awesome idea. If you watch the video you can see the driver ignored two other flashing STOP signs before the water curtain was manually triggered. Any driver dumb enough to ignore that deserves to be scared.
And besides, it’s a lot less scary than smashing your truck to pieces inside a tunnel.
The sign lights up when a truck that will NOT fit under the bridge approaches…so…either the truck driver panic stops or crash stops…makes no difference at all in the havoc created.
Hell, for these morons that won’t stop their giant ass trucks they should install tire shredders. Maybe that’ll get em to pay attention & avoid the tunnels.
And the representative from the Australian Trucking Association gamely tries to shift the blame to the construction of the tunnels. Nice.
Freakin rad!
So crashing into the top of the tunnel is better than slamming on one’s brakes?? Derp
So it’s better to have the truck crash into the tunnel than to scare the daylights out of the driver?
Seems like a great idea to me. You alert the driver, but if they’re not paying attention, they don’t actually crash into anything.
If you look at the full footage of this event you’ll see there are a TON more warning signs before this one, the truck driver ignored/missed all of them. I think you must have missed that.
We have flashing lights near us. This water curtain is such a better idea.
It’s the old “We should’ve been consulted.” crap.
Some things can’t be built differently.
Some drivers either don’t know the area or try to take shortcuts because they’re under pressure.
It usually doesn’t work out.
My family has had rather unpleasant experiences with truckers whose companies didn’t provide them with truck GPS systems, but regular automobile GPSs.
Our gutter has been torn-off three times already because a 40-ton truck decided to enter our street.
I think the idea is great.
The scare notwithstanding, from what I can tell, this sign is triggered manually by the tunnel authority to warn a specific driver.
and the construction looked good, as the water seemed to flow down into the tunnel not onto the path in front.
Sorry to ruin your little fantasy meeting, but the driver stopped well clear of the tunnel and water once they saw the stop sign. This is demonstrably preventing accidents, not causing them.
The curtain is in, or almost in, the tunnel. The driver won’t hit the wet patch without first crashing.
The flashing stop signs (and the sheet of water) are only triggered when sensors detect that the truck is too tall to safely pass through. At which point everyone needs to panic stop because if the truck fails to stop it could send debris everywhere when it crashes.
“I don’t know – it seems like they might scare the daylights out of the driver and cause even more havoc.”
…you are correct — you dont know. you arent a transit expert. they are.
You’re neglecting the amount of damage to the tunnel that “crash stops” can cause.