Troopers: loveseat takes header off I-5 bridge
SEATTLE (AP) - The Washington State Patrol says the story of a loveseat that fell from a pickup truck and then plunged off Seattle's Ship Canal Bridge offers a lesson about unsecured loads.
The loveseat first landed in an Interstate 5 express lane last Sunday, where it was hit by a Toyota Prius. That collision catapulted the loveseat over a barrier and it fell about 180 feet to the water below. It quickly sank.
Trooper Julie Judson said Wednesday that no injuries were reported.
She says the loveseat was stacked on top of a mattress in the pickup bed. The load was secured with only one strap attached from front to rear.
The pickup driver was cited for failure to properly secure a load - a $216 ticket.
The loveseat first landed in an Interstate 5 express lane last Sunday, where it was hit by a Toyota Prius. That collision catapulted the loveseat over a barrier and it fell about 180 feet to the water below. It quickly sank.
Trooper Julie Judson said Wednesday that no injuries were reported.
She says the loveseat was stacked on top of a mattress in the pickup bed. The load was secured with only one strap attached from front to rear.
The pickup driver was cited for failure to properly secure a load - a $216 ticket.
What no ticket for littering?.....
The loveseat wasn't feeling the love and decided to end it all. Goodbye cruel world!
I'm glad the people in the Prius weren't injured - lucky day. I think the fine needs to be way higher for something like this. That couch could have killed somebody or severely injured them. Dumb a$$es.
$216 for almost killing someone? There's justice for you.
@therunner I'm sure the bill from the Prius driver is going to be a hell of alot more than that.
Holy cow! I am so glad the Prius driver wasn't injured! Great excuse for being late to work though...Ya um Mr. Smith? I'm gonna be late...I just hit a couch on I-5...no really...a couch. Honestly!
Put a tarp over the load and then strap it down. That way nothing will fall out.
@papoon unless you are bad at tying knots or using tiedown straps.
@papoon Stop that! No common sense allowed! LOL! ;-)
@papoon   I have had a canopy for years. Nothing blows out, and I can't haul refrigerators. (win/win)
@rockguy @papoon LOL. My husband would fully agree with you! That was a good one.
The makers of pickups also have a share in the blame. Most pickup beds only have 4 tie down points.
@rockguyIf you need more tiedowns to properly secure a load, it's your right and responsibility to add more tiedown points. Whether you use the cheap Home Depot cleat with self tapping screws or have professional tiedown points installed is up to you. There are a myriad of ways to use even just the 4 common holes to do proper tiedowns. They sell inserts with liftable hooks or eyes that you can put runner ropes down the sides front and back with, and then secure loads across at any point you wish.
My point is that this is a matter of knowing how to do it properly. I can tie down a load on a truck using only those 4 points pretty much any way I wish because I have the knowledge. Ignorance is no excuse. If you can't tie it down right, you shouldn't be hauling it.
Oh Horsehockey...that gives you a minimum of side to side AND across the top corner to corner....a boxed X...and on most FS trucks the center stake pockets to use for a pair of boxed Xs.
Nothing more than a failure of imagination and innovation on the part of the driver...and likely a large portion of laziness.
The pickup driver should be required to talk to Maria Federici and explain why he couldn't be bothered to properly tie down his stupid love seat.
@nodozr In most of these the problem isn't people failing to secure their loads. Its people failing to secure their loads with the proper equipment. Too often I see people going into walmart and buying cheap bungee cords and then using those to secure heavy loads. Using improper equipment is just as bad as using no equipment at all.
@seattleemt @nodozr A good spidernet works wonders at securing things in the bed of a pickup. I'm so tired of seeing idiots flying down Hwy 410 with unsecured loads, I don't know how many times i watch crap fly out and either hit or almost hit the cars behind, usually its just small crap but every once in a while its bigger stuff.Â
I watched a tire w/ rim fly off the top of stack of junk in the back of an old, beat up pick up truck on the Hewitt Ave Trestle a short time ago. It bounced into the lane behind it. I lost sight of it after the first horrible bounce, but kept waiting to hear the sirens. None sounded. It was just pure dumb luck no one was killed. My blood ran cold watching it. What an idiot to think that was a safe way to just toss that tire on top to weight the blue tarp down over the junk.
Can't believe it; how stupid...only one f-to-b strap?? Â The loveseat must've jiggled out sideways and went!
With how many people around here drive around with parts falling off their cars, how can you expect them to secure things they are actually transporting?
What's the deal with Seattle drivers and unsecured loads?? I swear, you could furnish a medium-sized home in less than a week just by following these news stories and picking up the crap that falls off of other people's vehicles! (Of course, your love seat may be a bit wet, but ...)
Get the loveseat out of the water...
@Funky-Munky Yah, it probably has toxic flame retardant in the fabric and will kill the fish!
Isn't anyone concerned about the loveseat?
Somehow this person was competent enough to get a driver's license.Â
@NWlife Doesn't take much to get a driver's license, you don't even need to be able to read, speak or understand Americanized English.
@Furd @NWlife So people who can speak English are smarter and are better drivers? All it takes is to speak English? English speakers are the best people in the world? Oh, and AMERICANIZED English too, any other English is not good enough!
There are plenty of stupid people around, American or not! Stupid, selfish and don't give a damn!
I beg to differ. Most of the POS trucks driven in Seattle are driven by folks who speak very little english.
@NWlife how do you know he had one?
@Mumblix Grumph @NWlife That's funny. I was going to post the same thing. Even had it typed out. But then I figured that if he didn't have one, they would have cited him for that too. Although maybe they did and it wasn't mentioned in the article :)