We have a railroad bridge around here that’s 10’9″ above a four lane road. I don’t know when it was built, but it looks pretty old (it looks like something they made back in the good old days when they didn’t cheap out on material), and it certainly predates me. Every now and again, a vehicle that’s taller than that (typically a tractor trailer) tries to drive underneath it, which generally results in the top of the trailer being peeled back like the top of a sardine can, and the truck getting stuck, holding up traffic for hours as they try to pry the damn thing out.

Over the years, they’ve tried pretty much everything short of lowering the road (it’s right next to a lake, and would probably flood constantly if they did that) or raising the bridge (did I mention this thing looks awfully solid), including painting the edge of the thing fluorescent orange, adding flashing lights, and putting a humongous yellow warning sign across the road about a mile away, equipped with flashing warning lights. I get the feeling that drivers must think they’re kidding or something. Still, people keep hitting this thing (I think the score is something like Bridge: 47, Trucks: 0, and, as far as I can tell, the bridge hasn’t moved even a faction of an inch in all these years).

Anyhow, in the wee hours of Saturday morning, a “Mega Bus” (which is apparently what we call double-decker buses up here) sitting about 12 feet, 8 inches high and on its way to Toronto, got lost, missed a turn, missed all the warning signs, and slammed into the bridge and flipped over, killing 4 people sitting in the front of the top deck (whose heads, if you do the math, would be, well, not in a very good spot), and sending a whole lot more to the hospital where I work. Pretty nasty looking crash.

So, anyhow, while I’m sure the view is very nice from the top level of one of these buses, my advice is to sit on the first level (and toward the back).

The first Sunday of football season is in the books. The Bills lost, which is always nice to see, and I hope Eagles fans are happy now that they’ve finally gotten rid of Donovan McNabb, who didn’t have a spectacular debut with Washington, but at least beat the Cowboys (which is the team I most enjoy seeing lose – not that I saw the game, ‘cuz I go to bed pretty early these days). Speaking of games on too late for me to watch, the Jets play tonight. Let’s hope they manage to come up with a win, after a less than impressive (and fortunately meaningless) preseason.

Oh well, time to get going. I have a tractor to pay for.