A notorious bridge that developed a cult following for devouring dozens of trucks will finally be torn down today and replaced with an ‘un-crashable’ version.
The Bayswater Bridge in Perth’s east claimed 65 victims, according to unofficial lists going back to 2014, plus five more known crashes between 2006 to 2013 – and many more in its 112-year history.
News that yet another driver has misjudged the 3.8metre height is met with snarls from motorists trapped in resulting traffic jams, dismay by transport officials, and groans of disbelief from everyone else.
Tracking the rail bridge’s victims, including one time it ‘fought back’ when a sign fell off and hit a car, became such a sport that the crossing attained legendary status over the years.
Social media is flooded with photos of each new crash and the bridge has social media pages devoted to it and a blog tracking every reported accident in the past decade.
The Bayswater Bridge in Perth’s east claimed 65 victims, according to unofficial lists going back to 2014, plus five more known crashes between 2006 to 2013 – and many more in its 112-year history
News that yet another driver has misjudged the 3.8metre height is met with snarls from motorists trapped in resulting traffic jams, dismay by transport officials, and groans of disbelief from everyone else
The bridge’s impending demise was memorialised on Friday by both WA Premier Mark McGowan and the Metronet authority that will replace the bridge, showing a montage of crashed truck photos.
Mr McGowan’s video was set to Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler, and declared: ‘Tomorrow, Perth loses an icon. You were a gentle giant with a small 3.8m clearance. When they went high, you went low. Thanks for the memories.’
Why at least one truck every two months carrying everything from milk to vegetables, steel, rubbish, and even tractors kept wedging themselves under it mystified locals and experts alike.
Numerous signs warn drivers and in 2014 flashing ‘low clearance’ signs were added that – combined with the growing infamy of the bridge – should have prevented such catastrophic mistakes, but didn’t.
Paul Shanahan, local teacher and chairman of lobby group Future Bayswater, speculated truck drivers won a bet or gained bragging rights if they hit it, as no explanation made sense.
‘Despite all the signs and the warnings, it just happens all the time,’ he said.
‘I have lived here for nearly 30 years and it has just been such a common occurrence in our lives and there are not many weeks that go by where it hasn’t happened.’
Social media is flooded with photos of each new crash and the bridge has its own social media pages and a blog tracking every reported accident in the past decade
Why at least one truck every two months carrying everything from milk to vegetables, steel, rubbish, and even tractors kept wedging themselves under it mystified locals and experts alike
Every crash is announced to local businesses clustered around the intersection with a sickening clang that immediately draws a crowd to ogle at the chaos
Transport Minister Rita Saffioti had a more mundane theory.
‘I think people don’t realise just how big their truck is or how high their load is and because they’re used to going under other bridges which have a bigger clearance, they underestimate just how big their load is,’ she said.
Every crash is announced to local businesses clustered around the intersection with a sickening clang that immediately draws a crowd to ogle at the chaos.
‘That sound. As soon as it happened you knew what it was,’ Geoff Hodder, who ran a cheese shop next to the bridge for five years, recalled.
‘All different kinds of truck with all different kinds of canopy would hit it but would always get that metal on metal sound almost like thunder.’
Mr Hodder said though no one has ever been seriously injured in a bridge mishap, crashes were often spectacular and the trucks always came off second best.
‘One time it was winter and it was raining and there was a Waldecks truck with plants on the back and all the pot plants were scattered across the road,’ he said.
‘I’m surprised that nothing catastrophic happened. I mean it could have been really bad.’
A cooling truck is stuck under the bridge, like dozens before it, because it was a little too high to make it all the way
In a particularly embarrassing incident, a political candidate’s truck got stuck underneath the bridge during an election campaign
Mr Hodder said drivers offered excuses ranging from not realising the height of their vehicle or their GPS telling them to take the route under the bridge.
‘We were there for five years and I used to have a catalogue of photos with probably over a dozen trucks jammed under the bridge,’ he said.
‘Nobody was badly injured from what I saw but it was a lot of embarrassment. You’d see truck drivers looking up with their hands in their head thinking ‘what the f*** just happened?”
Mr Shanahan said the violent crashes often caused havoc on the main road and he was surprised the results weren’t more serious.
‘It is a very busy intersection and it was just mayhem. I remember one day a truck got through but the front end loader it was carrying had not,’ he said.
‘That smashed up against the bridge and fell in front of traffic on the other lane. It was just so lucky it didn’t land on a car and kill somebody.
‘There were times when the trucks could just let their tyres down and scrape through but other times they were completely concertinaed with the top of the cabin ripped off.’
The last recorded crash was on February 27 when a semi-trailer hit the bridge, shearing off a large piece of metal, but was able to extract itself by reversing.
That truck will be the Bayswater Bridge’s final victim as it is due to be demolished today as part of a major redevelopment of the area including a brand new train station.
A new version, this time with a 4.8m clearance – 50cm higher than the maximum height for most heavy vehicles in Australia – has already been erected over the top.
The last recorded crash (pictured) was on February 27 when a semi-trailer hit the bridge, shearing off a large piece of metal, but was able to extract itself by reversing
Numerous signs warn drivers and in 2014 flashing ‘low clearance’ signs were added that – combined with the growing infamy of the bridge – should have prevented such catastrophic mistakes, but didn’t
A new version, this time with a 4.8m clearance – 50cm higher than the maximum height for most heavy vehicles in Australia – has already been erected over the top (pictured during construction last year)
Though motorists will not miss the gridlock each collision causes, Perth locals already feel a tinge of sadness that the perpetually entertaining bridge will be no more.
Ms Saffioti even put out a call for residents to share how they wanted the bridge to be remembered, suggesting a slide show of the worst crashes and pieces of it being preserved like the Berlin Wall.
‘If people wanted to have an auction, or a sell-off, we could donate that money to charity,’ she said a year ago.
‘It’s got its own website [and] as I understand there’s a band that’s been named after the bridge.’
Her favourite suggestion was a candlelit vigil set to the tune of Brittney Spears’ 1998 hit (Hit Me) Baby One More Time.
Others included towing the bridge to the Swan River and sending it off Viking funeral-style with flaming arrows, or a parade of trucks previously trapped by the bridge, each with a plaque containing a piece of the bridge.
Instead, in more mundane fashion, the bridge will be slowly dismantled over several hours.
Mr Shanahan said the bridge probably should have been replaced a long time ago when it was clear the warning signs were not working, but he expected locals would have mixed feelings.
‘If your aim is to reduce accidents, the demolition it’s well overdue. I guess the government was waiting for this major project to make it happen,’ he said.
‘It certainly been very entertaining living in the area, so I think there is going to be a bit of nostalgia because in a way we’ll miss the stories.
‘But I hope Bayswater becomes known for something else.’
Bayswater Bridge was first built on the site in 1910, but has only existed in its current form since 1969 (pictured that year) when the original was torn down and widened to accommodate four lanes of traffic
A blog keeps track of as many crashes as it can, and the number of days since the last accident. This is since the last-ever crash before the bridge is demolished
The bridge gained a cult following online with memes, like this one merged with a scene from The Simpsons, mocking those who failed to pass under it
Bayswater Bridge was first built on the site in 1910, but has only existed in its current form since 1969 when the original was torn down and widened to accommodate four lanes of traffic.
Yet the bridge has taken incredible punishment over hundreds, if not thousands, of collisions with barely a scratch of paint to the metal and concrete.
‘It was built 50 years ago, so for that bridge to take the amount of knocks it did it’s actually really quite a testament to how it was built,’ Mr Hodder said.
‘I hope they keep some part of it, somehow, as a homage.’
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