Truck driving lessons for getting under bridges

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The southbound lanes of Yellowstone Highway were shut down Thursday for hours due to a semi truck hitting the bottom of the bridge.

We wanted answers on to how to fix this mistake.

So on Friday, we reached out to a local truck driving school teacher to see what kind of precautions he teaches his students.

He told us truck drivers should always know the correct height of their load.

This can be simply done by using a tape measure before starting the journey.

Drivers have to pay attention to signs indicating of an underpass ahead.

Those are usually the signs that give away the height of the bridge above the road.

They then need to make the call on whether or not they can easily get under the bridge before reaching it.

Lynn Jorgensen with the Sage Truck Driving school says the best thing to do though is prepare ahead of the trip itself.

"They'll do a pre-trip route and know exactly what each overpass height is. If they're very unfamiliar with the area, this can be a problem, and that's why a trip planning should be one of their cases that they should look for," Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen also knows GPS systems have been at fault for this problem too.

He said a few of these systems have incorrect bridge heights.

The GPS would allow the truck driver to believe he is in the clear when in reality his load isn't small enough.

Next week, we will talk to the Idaho Transportation Department to see how they prevent this issue on its roadways.