Fiery Crash Collapses California Freeway

[Alex]

No, they had to wait until it was cleaned up to get in and start doing structural evaluations. They don't know if the fire weakened that part or not.

[Stan4dSteph]

I read a post elsewhere that indicated one of the barriers to quick repair is ability to obtain the required structural steel. Steel is in high demand due in large part to the massive amounts of development in China right now. There are long lead times for orders, so the situation is different now than it was in 1989 for Loma Prieta.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Turns out he has two arrests in the '70s and a possession conviction 10 years ago.
...
The answer?

The law doesn't prohibit it and he passed all the tests.

Um... so he made some mistakes in the past. The 70's- that was 30 years ago... a lot can change in 30 years. Drug possession was still 10 years ago- that's a long time.

More important I think is that he passed all the tests and presumably they test drivers for drugs once in a while, right? Doing his job is more useful a gauge than what he did in the past. He could have learned better since then.

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I'm pretty sure that if you ignite a full tanker trunk underneath just about any stretch of road in this state that you'll experience structural failures.

That just made me giggle. I can imagine the experiments. And the surprise when you conclude, hey, burning that much fuel under an overpass really does melt things!

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by CoasterMatt

I just want to say for the record, I was nowhere near that bridge at the time of the accident,

Hummm, perhaps you have an alibi, but sources tell me that a certain bear of foreign nationality was sighted in the vicinity shortly before the "accident".

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by alphabassettgrrl

Um... so he made some mistakes in the past. The 70's- that was 30 years ago... a lot can change in 30 years. Drug possession was still 10 years ago- that's a long time.

More important I think is that he passed all the tests and presumably they test drivers for drugs once in a while, right? Doing his job is more useful a gauge than what he did in the past. He could have learned better since then.

God, what has our society become? Shall we all be branded with scarlet letters in perpetuity once we've slipped up one time?

You know... the Nazis kept excellent records too...

(oops, little Godwinian slip there)

[lashbear]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Hummm, perhaps you have an alibi, but sources tell me that a certain bear of foreign nationality was sighted in the vicinity shortly before the "accident".

Vegemite is not flammable.

[Morrigoon]

I don't think it was the vegemite that was flaming, dear

[alphabassettgrrl]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

God, what has our society become? Shall we all be branded with scarlet letters in perpetuity once we've slipped up one time?

Only if you mess up again later. This guy was lucky enough that his indiscretions were forgotten and he could have a life. I wonder if he told the truth on his job application though.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

God, what has our society become? Shall we all be branded with scarlet letters in perpetuity once we've slipped up one time?

Doveryay, no proveryay.

I say he deserved the second, third or whatever chance but I'd sure as heck be dragging his butt in for drug and alcohol tests right about now.

[Prudence]

But you might want to test him before roasting him alive in the press. We had a big crane collapse here and killed a guy and the press dug into the crane operator's rather unsavory past and splashed it all about with the usual mock horror. Turns out he had nothing to do with why it collapsed, but nobody really cared about that.