A new sign was hoisted over an entrance to Storrow Drive in Boston on Monday, the latest attempt to prevent trucks from crashing into the low-clearance overpasses on the highway — an occurrence that's so common it has its own place in local lore.
"Storrowings" happen every few months, and especially often around Sept. 1, when most Boston leases turn over and students unfamiliar with the area's roads pack their things in rented trucks.
The new "CARS ONLY" sign raised on David G. Mugar Way at Mount Vernon Street in the Back Bay is part of a new push from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Last week, the agency released a parody video set to Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" pleading with newcomers to "do your part by looking for the signs, and, together, we can not hit a bridge with a truck."
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If the new sign is successful, more will be hung at entrances to the parkways along the Charles River — Boston's Soldiers Field Road and Cambridge's Memorial Drive as well as Storrow Drive.
The new sign is heavier and more reflective than the one it replaces and with a sturdier connection that officials believe will serve as a clearer warning to drivers.
"The old ones were hit somewhat frequently and a lot of times I believe the truck driver doesn't know or understand that they've hit the sign," said Jeff Parenti, chief engineer at the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
‘Storrowed': 10 Years of Photos of Stuck Trucks on Boston's Storrow Drive
For the uninitiated, at least once every few months, a person driving a truck will miss the many signs that already exist warning of low clearance on the roads and the top of the vehicle will hit an overpass. Often, the impact of a "Storrowing" will open the truck's roof up like a tin can.
Move-In Day this year is Sept. 3.
The "Angel" video — a parody of MSPCA pet adoption commercials — quickly became DCR's most-watched reel on Instagram, the department told NBC10 Boston last week.
"As Move-In Day approached this year, we tried to think of new ways to save our overpasses, deter ‘storrowing’ and educate those moving into the Boston area about the dangers of driving a truck onto Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road in Boston and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, and came up with the idea for this video and others that we will be putting out over the next week," DCR spokesperson Ilyse Wolberg said in a statement. "We’ve tried being serious and informative and thought why not try to be funny and informative this year."
