Slight Detour – March/April 2021
Cleanup on Aisle 495
In Maryland, a tractor-trailer overturned on Interstate 495, dumping its orange cargo across multiple lanes of traffic in Montgomery County.
We know too many cheese balls can clog arteries in the cardiovascular system, but apparently they also can clog traffic arteries like the 495.
No one was injured, but the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration said a resulting fuel spill had to be cleaned up with a sand truck.
Guess the sticky cheese ball dust doesn’t have any absorbent properties.
B-O-L-O
Nobody likes traffic cameras, but a thief or thieves in Canada’s largest city took that distaste to the next level.
Toronto police reported the theft of the speed camera – which weighed nearly 800 pounds – from one of the city’s busiest intersections. Under normal circumstances, the speed camera requires a hydraulic lift to be moved.
The guilty party must’ve already had a hydraulic lift on hand, which they no doubt use to help tote their brass ones around, when they’re not committing acts of grand larceny that is.
The camera hasn’t been found, and no arrests have been made. That’s one way to fight the law and win.
Deep in the heart of a Texas overpass
We’re all familiar with the trope of firefighters rescuing a kitten from a high tree, but what
about from a support column carrying an interstate overpass?
That’s what happened in El Paso, Texas, when local police, fire and animal control workers banded together to snag a freaked-out feline that found itself atop a column supporting Interstate
10 recently.
Authorities say the cat was stranded there for several days. The speculation was the animal crawled into the engine compartment of a parked car for a catnap and ended up falling out in transit. It ended up darting down the overpass before getting stuck. It’s unclear how many of its nine lives it must’ve used up trying to cross the interstate.
A video of the rescue is available on the El Paso Animal Service’s Facebook page. The cat was treated for dehydration but suffered no other injuries.
Reminder: secure those loads
A Florida woman told her local news station she was lucky to survive after a piece of plywood flew off the back of a lumber truck and crashed through her windshield while both vehicles were traveling down the freeway.
Stephanie Williams of Port Charlotte told WBBH-TV she was on Interstate 75, near exit 190, when she noticed the load of wood being carried by a large commercial vehicle ahead of her was not tightly secured. A piece of plywood caught the wind before plunging into her windshield. Williams was unhurt but the plywood struck her door frame before splintering.
Williams said she was not able to get enough information to identify the truck or the operating company.
Lego tribute to a truck-eating bridge
Every city, it seems, has at least one bridge that is infamous for trucks getting stuck under it.
In Boston, it happens all too frequently along Storrow Drive near the Charles River. So frequently that the locals call it “Storrowing.” And one resident has created a tribute to the crashes – in Lego form.
Boston.com reports that a YouTube user called “CreativeOutlaw” uploaded a 6-second video featuring a Lego truck rolling down a Lego version of Storrow Drive. The truck goes under an overpass – made of Legos, of course – and its top gets peeled back like a can opener.
CreativeOutlaw called the video “Going for a Storrow Drive – a Lego Tribute to all of the moving trucks that get ‘Storrowed’ annually here by an overpass in Boston.”
Incidentally, if you’re heading that way, just know that the height limit on
Storrow Drive is only 10 feet, lest you find yourself immortalized in Lego form.
Sneaky hitchhiker
A Texarkana, Ark., woman received her 15 minutes of fame on social media after hitching a ride with a semi owned by Walmart. The reason she’s getting the attention? She was riding on the outside of the truck.
KTAL reports that in video of the bizarre scene the woman can be seen clinging to the back of the truck’s trailer near the Walmart Supercenter in Texarkana. The video followed the truck for a short time, until the truck stopped at a red light and the woman got off and walked across the road. The truck driver, more than likely, never even knew she was there. There’s gotta be an easier way to stowaway, right? LL