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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. July 17, 2018:

Bridge strikes were the topic at a meeting at County Executive George Latimer’s office last Friday

Latimer pulled together officials from Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Rye Brook, Rye, along with the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), state elected officials  and the Trucking Association of New York .

After the meeting, Latimer said there isn’t going to be one solution, but rather many.

Among them:

1. Evaluate the location where the “head banger”system ( the trade term for a height bar hanging over an entrance to the parkway similar to the bars hanging in parking garages) could be tested

(Editor’s Note: There is an sidebar issue to the height bars brought by the Department of Transportation.

Catherine Cioffi, Director of Communications for Westchester County asked by WPCNR when the test would come, said she did not have a date yet when the test would be conducted.

Asked what it would cost to put Height Bars on all entrances to the Hutchinson River Parkway, she said the Department of Transportation did not have a cost on such a complete every entrance installation.

Cioffi said the Department of Transportation advised that there was a safety issue involved in installing height bars. Cioffi said the DOT said the height bar could become “airborne” creating a possibility of some kind of damage. Cioffi at this point did not have the details on how height bars could be modified if possible to be safer if hit by a truck hitting them, 

2.  NYSDOT agreed to do an immediate assessment of dramatic signage prior to the King Street Bridge on the Hutchinson River Parkway

3-  Trucking Association of New York will work with County Executive’s Office to establish an education program for users of all parkways that would explain the County’s Parkway System

4-      Outreach to mapping companies, like Google Maps and Waze, to update their software to add in warnings for trucks and other commercial vehicles

5-      Westchester County Police to gather a breakdown of the statistics on the bridge strikes and the NYSDOT to also share the data they have collected.  6

6-      Review of bridge strikes on the Bronx River Parkway

7-      NYSDOT to alert local police in real time, along with County Police, of trucks entering parkway

Latimer said: “This is a problem and it is going to stop. We are going to make every effort we can to try to end this.  This is a solvable problem.  If government can’t solve this problem then government can’t do anything.   And, I confidently believe that rational people working together can make a difference.”

Latimer said: “I am confident we can execute these strategies relatively quickly, and we will monitor the success we have.”

The next meeting is set for the fall.