New York Gov. Kathy Hochul today announced a growing, coordinated public awareness and enforcement campaign to prevent bridge strikes by commercial vehicles and large trucks across New York State.
In 2025, there were 310 reported bridge strikes in New York State, usually involving commercial and large truck operators who failed to know or recognize their vehicle’s height or ignored warning signs.
In November 2023, the State Department of Transportation launched the “Check Your Height, Know It’s Right!” social media and video campaign to educate the public about the importance of preventing bridge strikes. Since then, the Department has worked with The Eastern Transportation Coalition (TETC) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) to encourage other states to adopt the campaign. To date, 26 states including New York, plus Washington, D.C. have joined this campaign, up from 16 states last year.
This year’s campaign runs from Monday, July 27 to Friday, July 31 and aims to educate drivers about their responsibility in preventing bridge strikes.
In addition, drivers are reminded that in February New York took a significant step toward mitigating bridge strikes by instituting an 8-point violation for striking a bridge.
“Bridge strikes are 100 percent preventable, and everyone plays a critical role in preventing these strikes from happening,” Governor Hochul said. “It takes a combination of education, enforcement, and public awareness to stop bridge strikes from occurring, so I encourage everyone using an overheight vehicle to ‘Check Your Height, Know It’s Right!’ before hitting the road and, if you are driving a truck, make sure that you’re utilizing commercial GPS.”
Truck operators should use commercial-grade GPS devices and applications for navigating along New York’s roads since consumer-grade GPS and cell phone mapping applications do not necessarily take low-clearance bridges and overpasses into account when calculating travel directions.
The New York State 511NY website includes “Trucker Mode,” which identifies the location of height- and weight-restricted bridges and highlights restricted routes, such as the parkways, and all commercial vehicle operators are encouraged to use “Trucker Mode” to verify their route ahead of time. Additionally, when driving rented box trucks, such as moving trucks, drivers must be especially aware of their vehicle’s height and obey all warning signs since many drivers are not accustomed to operating a larger vehicle.
As part of this week’s campaign, troopers will focus active patrols in key areas across the state where there have been documented bridge strikes by large commercial vehicles. Variable Message Signs throughout the state will be displaying “Check Your Height, Know It’s Right” messaging throughout the campaign.
Trucking Association of New York Vice President of Government Affairs Zach Miller said, “Professional truck drivers are among the safest motorists on our roads, and safety begins long before a vehicle leaves the yard. Knowing your vehicle’s height, planning a safe route, and using commercial-grade navigation tools are simple but essential steps in preventing bridge strikes and protecting all road users and critical infrastructure.”
Credit: Source link
