The New York State Department of Transportation’s “Check Your Height, Know It’s Right” Campaign aims to educate commercial trucks and large vehicles on how to prevent bridge strikes.
The campaign, which has been adopted by 16 other eastern states and Washington, D.C., will run from Tuesday, July 22 until Saturday July 26. The campaign will include videos on social media, as well as active patrols in areas across the state where there have been documented bridge strikes by large commercial vehicles. Those areas in New York include New York State Parkways in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island.
“Bridge strikes are 100 percent preventable, but it takes a concerted effort combining the forces of education, enforcement and public awareness to prevent them from occurring, and that’s just what our nationally-adopted ‘Check Your Height, Know it’s Right’ campaign aims to do,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “Traffic safety is an essential element of public safety, and preventing bridge strikes fundamentally increases the safety of the traveling public. Drivers also play an important role in this, so I encourage everyone to ‘Check Your Height, Know it’s Right’ before hitting the road, and if you are driving a truck, make sure that you’re utilizing commercial GPS.”
Operators of commercial trucks and large vehicles using consumer-grade GPS can also be guided onto routes with low bridges, and those driving rented box trucks — such as moving trucks — can strike bridges if their drivers are not aware of the vehicle’s height. In 2024, New York State saw 350 bridge strikes, usually the result of commercial and large truck operators failing to recognize their vehicle’s height or failing to pay attention to warning signs. Commercial trucks are banned from driving on New York State Parkways, which may have bridge clearances smaller than many standard commercial vehicles.
In addition to Washington, D.C., other states participating in the campaign include Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
“Working with our transportation and law enforcement partners, the Department of Transportation is doing everything it possibly can to prevent bridge strikes across the state, but at the end of the day, commercial vehicle operators also have an important role to play,” New York State Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez said. “Before getting on the road, we want everyone to ‘Check Your Height, Know it’s Right.’”