A Question Of Signage

We'll begin today with some follow-up on a story we did yesterday about just one of the well known hazards of driving in Boston.

That's right. We reported on a weekend bus crash on Soldiers Field Road that injured 35 passengers, one of whom is still in critical condition. It was just the latest in a long history of accidents in which drivers unfamiliar with the parkway, miss the warning signs and crash their trucks and buses into the low bridges.

That's what happened Saturday, when a bus driver carrying students home to Pennsylvania hit the Western Avenue Bridge on Soldier's Field Road. It took crews over an hour to free all of the passengers from the wreckage.

Yesterday we spoke with SJ Port, spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the state agency that maintains the roadway, about some possible low-tech solutions to avoid crashes in the future. Among the ideas — beefing up the low-hanging warning signs to keep trucks and buses off the roadway.

"So in '87 we put cowbells on all of those [signs] and unfortunately they weren't very efficient. Whenever we had a windy day, they would just clang throughout the entire day which residents weren't thrilled with. And we pulled those off in 1990. We are looking into what we can do to give further warning beyond the signs we already have."

But what signs?

After he heard this story, Paul Levy did a little investigation of his own — and followed the course the bus took last Saturday. Levy is the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the author of "Goal Play: Leadership Lessons from the Soccer Field."

Guest:

Paul Levy, author of "Goal Play: Leadership Lessons from the Soccer Field"

More:

Paul Levy's blog: Not Running A Hospital

Radio Boston "Saturday night, a charter bus carrying a group of Pennsylvania students and their chaperons slammed into the Western Avenue Bridge as it was traveling on Soldiers Field Road. The crash injured 35 students, with four passengers in critical condition and one with life-threatening injuries."