Candy-Laden Truck Involved In Not-So-Sweet Incident

By Andrew Gorosko

Although a box truck was hauling a load of chocolate through Botsford last week, the situation that it encountered there at a low-clearance railroad bridge was not so sweet.

Trucker Christopher Lawhorn, 42, of Pittsburgh, Penn., was driving a 2007 International commercial truck eastward on Botsford Hill Road where he had been detoured after an unrelated motor vehicle accident had occurred on South Main Street, police said.

While approaching the Housatonic Railroad Company’s rail bridge that spans Botsford Hill Road, near its intersection with Swamp Road, Lawhorn did not realize that the truck’s height exceeded the 11-foot, 5-inch clearance provided by the old rail bridge, police said.

When he attempted to drive the International beneath the bridge, the top of the truck’s cargo box struck the bottom of the bridge, peeling back about 10 feet of the roof atop the cargo box, police said.

Although the cargo box was heavily damaged, Lawhorn managed to free the truck from beneath the bridge and then found a safe place to stop the vehicle, police said. Lawhorn was uninjured.

Damage to the truck notwithstanding, Lawhorn was able to drive the vehicle to its intended destination to deliver its load of chocolate, explained Officer Dana Schubert, who investigated the incident for police.

The aging railroad bridge, which carries Housatonic Railroad freight trains above Botsford Hill Road, has often been struck by trucks too tall to pass beneath its low-clearance span. The area is clearly posted with low-clearance warning signs for the bridge.

An expert from the Housatonic Railroad was called in to inspect the bridge after the collision and it was deemed to be undamaged by the impact, police said.

After investigating, police issued Lawhorn an infraction ticket for driving a vehicle exceeding the height limits for a low-clearance span.