3 ms·
I find this story hard to believe. If you go to Google streetview it shows that barriers are indeed present (time stamp of May 2023) as well as significant ove
by freitzkriesler2 3y ago
I find this story hard to believe.
If you go to Google streetview it shows that barriers are indeed present (time stamp of May 2023) as well as significant overgrowth behind said barriers.
Address for the curious is 3844 23rd st ln NE hickory NC
You can even see the barriers on bing maps. They're not big barriers and it looks possible to drive around them.
What I think really happened was Mr Device Salesman in his "jeep gladiator" got cocky and tried to off road his vehicle because hey, it's a Jeep.
Instead the drop in the road was hidden and he drove himself essentially off of a small cliff.
The two problems here are:
1. Blindly following a GPS and not thinking critically about where you are going.
2. Trying to off road a vehicle without investigating the terrain prior to driving.
I'd say this is a potential Darwin award. It's sad but a cautionary tale about not being a thinkless lemming with GPS tools and off roading.
- a1o 3y agoIt was raining, night and the barriers weren't there in 2022. The bridge also has a very unfortunate still in place guard rails going from one side to the other, so only the bottom of the bridge is collapsed, which adds to the illusion that the bridge is still there in the previously mentioned conditions. :/
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoThere were already in place back in 2014 which you can observe on bing maps.
- tredre3 3y agoGranted it's not mentioned in FTA, but the barricade was removed at the time of the accident. > Typically, barricades are in place to prevent drivers from crossing the bridge, North Carolina State Highway Patrol said. But the barricades had been removed after being vandalized and were missing at the time of Paxson’s wreck. https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article279563759.html https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/...