A seventy-year-old railway overpass in Durham, North Carolina, with a passage height of approximately 3.5 meters (11 feet 8 inches), has been a challenge for truck drivers for a decade. A special problem here is caused by inexperienced drivers of rented trucks, who regularly ignore clearly posted road signs, as well as flashing warning lights that signal the excessive height of the vehicle.
Due to the frequency of accidents at the site, the railway company was forced to install a massive steel protection beam in front of the structure itself, to preserve the integrity of the track on the overpass, and there are signs and warning lights. None of this is enough, incidents continue to occur, often causing serious material damage to vehicles. In addition, they create an immediate danger for pedestrians and other road users who happen to be nearby at the time of the collision.
The overpass deserved a documentary
Systematic recording of these events began in April 2008 Jürgen Henn. At that time, he had installed the first camera in a nearby office space, with the idea of recording the moment of at least one collision, which was realized only a few weeks later. Since June 2009, the overpass has been filmed from two different angles, thanks to an additional camera placed in the space across the road.
Over the past ten years, Henn has filmed a number of crashes there that have earned the overpass the colloquial nickname “The Can Opener,” due to the specific way the low structure literally slices through the roofs of trucks that try to pass under it. The videos have since gone viral, garnering millions of views on YouTube, drawing public attention to this specific infrastructure problem.
Henn also runs a website dedicated to this overpass, and a few years ago even a short documentary film was made. We’re streaming some interesting videos from YouTube and that documentary below – so enjoy some (fun) in someone else’s misfortune.