It was easy to take a picture of this truck as it was stuck in a massive traffic jam. The story begins two weeks ago when the east bound lanes of the local interstate were closed so a bridge decking could be replaced. The detour for thru traffic consisted of a segment of local downtown streets that provided barely enough room for numerous unsuspecting semi trucks. To spice things up just a bit construction was occurring on the very same streets of the detour. That’s how we do it in Syracuse. While the turns were tight they were not impossible and most truckers were having no problem. Things quickly changed at the start of the morning ush on day two of the detour when a Toyota Corolla lost a wheel and came to a dead stop in an outside turning lane. One poor driver of new Kenworth T700 just couldn’t handle the obstruction and parked his rig in the intersection. He tried to backup. He tried to pull forward. Each move he made only served to straighten his truck out more and more making the turn that much more impossible. By now police had arrived and many onlookers were shouting advice with more than a few hoping the driver would back into a nearby police cruiser. He came close a few times. Thankfully an army of construction workers were on hand and moved many of the barricades to a nearby sidewalk and encouraged the driver to make another shot at the turn. With workers in front of the truck, watching the sides, and hanging from the doors the driver was finally able to make the turn after a tense 15 minutes. Talk about back seat driving. Subsequent truckers had no trouble making the turn. Go figure.
