New Cadillac SUVs Get a Buzzcut as Hauler Jams Under Detroit Overpass
This is what you don't want when you're carrying a trailer full of high-dollar, electric Cadillacs. The post New Cadillac SUVs Get a Buzzcut as Hauler Jams Under Detroit Overpass appeared first on The Drive.
There is one fault all vehicles share: they can’t duck. This is exacerbated by too many haulers who can’t measure, as yet another transporter neglects the bridge clearance on Interstate 94 in Detroit. Footage shared by Metro Detroit News shows a car hauler semi loaded with Cadillac Vistiqs and Lyriqs jammed under an interstate overpass. The electric vehicles still have the factory wrapping on them—too bad it’s not thick enough to shrug off a collision with steel.
For reasons that made sense to the driver and/or loader, the larger Vistiqs were placed up top while the smaller Lyriqs were hunkered down below. Would it really have mattered? Possibly.
The Cadillac Vistiq measures 71 inches in height, while the Lyriq is 64.3 inches tall. That’s a 6.7-inch height difference between the two SUVs, and the underside of the bridge didn’t exactly decapitate the taller topside vehicles. It’s possible that the Vistiqs wouldn’t have fit under the trailer’s top deck, too. There are too many unknowns to make the call.
To be fair, since 1956, the U.S. Department of Transportation has listed the minimum vertical clearance as 14 feet. The West Warren Avenue overpass where this blockage occurred measures just 13 feet and 8 inches, but it could have been built before the height standard was set. Warren Avenue does have a history of bridge strikes.
Although there are ongoing highway rehabilitation projects for metro Detroit, such as Restore 94 and the I-696 closures, they don’t address this specific area. Other overpasses along this portion of I-94 measure 14 feet and 7 inches, but they are no less immune to improper route planning.
Nearby bridges for Livernois and Frontenac Avenues have also had their share of wedged vehicles recently. The latter experienced a rather epic collision with a gravel hauler just last year.
Nevertheless, we know raising bridge heights isn’t a fail-safe solution. Maybe not even a measuring tape will help. Last month’s “catastrophically damaged” overpass in New Mexico is proof of that. At 16 feet and 9 inches, the Frontage Road exit on Interstate 10 is tall enough to clear most everything—except for negligence, it seems.
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The post New Cadillac SUVs Get a Buzzcut as Hauler Jams Under Detroit Overpass appeared first on The Drive.
