06/29/2024
6/28/24 10:30 A.M.
For Immediate release:
On 6/27/24, mid day, a IV Riley Materials, Inc. Owned semi truck and trailer was involved in a collision on the Hood River Toll Bridge.
At the time of the incident, the truck and trailer was leased out to a seperate company. The driver of the truck was employed by the lessee, and was not an employee of IV Riley Materials, Inc.
the leased truck was also additionally insured by the lessee.
A 1999 Kenworth W900L was towing a 2017 Load King 55 LDH Lowboy trailer hauling a 2018 Link Belt 145x4 excavator. The driver of the truck loaded the excavator on the trailer, at a job site, in Underwood, Wa., secured the equipment properly, and verified
the load was not over width or over height. Upon exiting the jobsite, it is presumed that a tree branch or other foreign object caught an adjustable pneumatic ride height control lever, mounted on the back of the trailer, and pushed the lever past the safety stop.
While in transit, this caused the air suspension to inflate, hyper-extending the air bags, causing the overall height of the trailer and load to increase by approximately 10"-12". Upon entry of the center span of the bridge, the arm of the excavator struck
the spans, with an estimated interference of 2"-3", causing damage to the spans. the driver did not feel any abnormal impact,and was unaware of striking the bridge and proceeded to the toll booth where the boom struck the transponder receiver, which he witnessed in his mirror. he immediately stopped, notified the
toll booth operator, and they called port officials to meet the driver in an adjacent parking lot to exchange information. Shortly thereafter, port officials made a quick inspection of the bridge, and determined that the boom had indeed struck the lift span, and proceeded to close the bridge down to allow engineers to do a full inspection.
The truck was of legal width and weight for the truck type, as prescribed by the emergency bridge weight restrictions that went into place on March 1st, 2024.
IV Riley Materials, the leasing company, and driver are fully cooperating with the investigation.