Trapped tractor trailer leads to road closure on McCalmont Road
BUTLER TWP — For several hours on Friday, Dec. 1, traffic on McCalmont Road in Butler Township came to a standstill because a tractor trailer was stuck under a railroad bridge.
The Butler Township Police Department was first called out to the scene just before 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon, after the tractor-trailer became stuck underneath a single-lane underpass on McCalmont Road. The overpass has only 12 feet 7 inches of clearance, which was evidently not enough for this vehicle.
According to Butler Township patrol officer Paul Kuss, the truck should never have been on that road in the first place.
“The truck driver was operating the vehicle in a restricted-height area,” said Kuss. “The truck driver was operating a commercial vehicle, which was over 12 feet 7 inches high, and got stuck under the overpass.”
The rail bridge, operated by Canadian National Railways, is used only to carry freight. As authorities were working to guide the vehicle out of its predicament, a train passed overhead.
Police set up a roadblock roughly a quarter of a mile away from the incident, causing some motorists to turn around at the roadblock and head back toward Pittsburgh Road.
By 5:09 p.m., the trailer was freed from under the bridge, and authorities began the long process of guiding the truck around the tight bend on McCalmont Road so it could reverse out of harm’s way.
McCalmont Road was fully reopened by 6:30 p.m.
It is unknown what the truck was carrying or who the truck belongs to, but it was carrying license plates for the Canadian province of Ontario. The truck bed had no markings on either side to mark who it belonged to.
