D-FW radio personality killed in I-30 traffic accident [Forklift Fell on John LaBella]

The Dallas Morning News ^ | March 4, 2002 | By KIMBERLY DURNAN / Dallas Websites

[MeekOneGOP]

D-FW radio personality killed in I-30 traffic accident

03/04/2002

By KIMBERLY DURNAN / Dallas Websites

KMEO-FM

LaBella

Memories 96.7 (KMEO) morning drive host John LaBella was killed after a tractor-trailer carrying a forklift struck the top of the Fort Worth Avenue Bridge while traveling westbound on Interstate 30 in Dallas Monday morning.

"The load was taller than the bridge," said Kenneth Shirley, assistant area engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. "We've got signs on the bridge and on the road giving fair warning. He didn't follow the advisory."

The bridge, which is 14.5 feet tall, sustained $50,000 worth of damage including a cracked beam, which will have to be replaced, Mr. Shirley said. Inspectors were on the scene to determine if the bridge would have to be closed.

According to a statement on the Memories 96.7 website, LaBella had been a morning drive radio fixture in Dallas/Fort Worth for over 20 years. He had worked at KMEO since the station went on the air in 1998. He is survived by his wife and daughter.

WFAA-TV

LaBella's car was crushed by a forklift on I-30 at Fort Worth Avenue.

The truck was in the middle lane of Interstate 30 when part of the forklift assembly caught the bridge, Dallas police Lt. John Branton said. Part of the fork assembly was ripped off and struck a vehicle heading eastbound, killing the occupant, he said.

The eastbound lanes on Interstate 30 will remain closed until the wreckage can be removed. All three westbound lanes of the interstate are now open, Mr. Shirley said.

The outside lane of the Fort Worth Avenue Bridge will be closed four to eight weeks until a steel beam is replaced, Mr. Shirley said.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/030402dnmetforkliftdeath.12cb983.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Easy Link
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/030402dnmetforkliftdeath.12cb983.html

[Elsie]

"The load was taller than the bridge," said Kenneth Shirley, assistant area engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation.

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HELLO!!!!

WHEN are we going to get WARNING devices BEFORE crashing into bridges????

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almost EVERY drive-up window has them!!!!

Snag a cable, and drop a flag - flash a light - sound a siren!

How hard can that be???????

[go star go]

I don't know about that. Why not just charge idiots that fail to pay attention to the signs with murder.

[El Gato]

Even easier would be a slightly higher powered version of the device that keeps you from closing the garage door on Fluffy, or junior. It's just a low power laser and photodetector. Put that on a couple of poles somewhat before the overpass or bridge at a height an inch or two lower than the clearance height, and then set off a warning flasher which could usually be on the bridge or overpass itself, as long as the driver would be able to see it there, otherwise you'd have to put up one of those overhanging sign type structures to hold the warning flashers at a distance from the obstruction that would allow a safe non-panic stop before hitting the obscrution.

[poorman]

They have them in South Dakota. It works, though, only if the driver heeds the warning.

In many states (though not all), the bridge clearance is prominently posted. In any case, overheight vehicles are supposed to stick to certain routes. There are maps available for each metro area which show all bridge clearances in that area.

This driver had no excuse for hitting the bridge. Bad enough about the damage and traffic jam, but he got someone killed. Now that's fuel for the anti-truck crowd.

[DallasMike]

LaBella has been around since my late high school or early college days. He and his partner, disk jockey John Rodie, were the hot ticket around Dallas/Fort Worth for years.

[MeekOneGOP]

I remember both of those names in radio. When I saw the headline on the DMN, I wondered who it was. Kind of a shocker. . .

[Dog Gone]

Now that's fuel for the anti-truck crowd.

Just imagine how long this thread would have been by now if this had been a Mexican truck allowed in under NAFTA.

[Tacis]

Here's my bet on this one! The driver of the truck with the flying forklift is an illegal alein who couldn't read a sign in English under any circumstances. My bet also is that he didn't have a license and, probably, wasn't insured. We may never know if I'm right, however, because the media will never tell us and the driver will duck back across the border before the dust settles. Remember, this could just as easily have been a nuclear device, smuggled across the porous border, although the Chinese or Muslim truck loaders would have been smart enough to stow the load properly and pick a driver who could read English signs.

[OKSooner]

"The load was taller than the bridge," said Kenneth Shirley, assistant area engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. "We've got signs on the bridge and on the road giving fair warning. He didn't follow the advisory."

What? This guy was responsible for a forklift being dropped on him?

[eddie willers]

Bad enough about the damage and traffic jam, but he got someone killed.

How many were killed?
It's impossible to tell from this poor excuse for reporting....(or editing)

[BansheeBill]

WHEN are we going to get WARNING devices BEFORE crashing into bridges????

In Boston, at the entrances to Memorial Drive (next to the Charles River where the 4th of July Concert and fireworks are held) there are "cat-o-nine tail" warning rods that hang down and LOUDLY scrape over and over height truck as he enters that road, and a LARGE sign informing Truckers of the Low bridges ahead. They also have tried flashing lights and a siren alarm triggered by an oversize truck breaking a light beam......and STILL, a few times a year, a trucker goes through those alarms and ignores them or somehow doesn't hear/see them, and then rips the top of his truck off or gets it wedged under a bridge.

The use of the cat-o-nine tails alarm is fairly common, and still some truckers will go under them and they will make that incredibly loud scraping noise all the way down the trailer, and they will go right ahead and slam into a bridge...maybe they have their radio on too loud, or are talking on a cell phone.

[thesharkboy]

What? This guy was responsible for a forklift being dropped on him?

I know what you mean. When I first read this article, I thought the DJ was driving the truck! This is one of the poorest stories I've read in a long time.

[xJones]

No, OK, the truck driver was responsible. It is poor writing.

The truck was in the middle lane of Interstate 30 when part of the forklift assembly caught the bridge, Dallas police Lt. John Branton said. Part of the fork assembly was ripped off and struck a vehicle heading eastbound, killing the occupant, he said.

[BearCub]

I was on I30 last week and was following a truck that kept barely making under the bridges - barely like 4-6 inches. There is no excuse for not knowing how tall your load is.

-bc

[JRandomFreeper]

This is one of the poorest stories I've read in a long time.

That's the Dallas Morning Snooze for you. The writers and editors are biased idiots. I haven't taken the Snooze in years.

/john

[buzzcat]

Didn't a brand-new BFD hook and ladder truck get stuck under a bridge there a few months back? (Boston is full of old "cow paths," folks.) In any event, having a forklift smash onto your car is one terrible way to go. God Bless the DJ and his family.

[thatsnotnice]

The use of the cat-o-nine tails alarm is fairly common, and still some truckers will go under them and they will make that incredibly loud scraping noise all the way down the trailer, and they will go right ahead and slam into a bridge....

The truck probably cleared the bridge just fine. I’m guessing that something on the forklift is what was sticking up too high.

I was following a semi across Wyoming at a high rate of speed once. He must have thrown a re-cap on the trailer or something because first all I saw was a cloud of white pellets, which I assume was insulation or something from the trailer, then the tire must have torn the hell out of the bottom of the trailer because suddenly there were pieces of pallets and bags of potatoes all over the road.

It scared the heck out of me because one minute we were cruising along about 80, then all of a sudden there were sacks of potatoes everywhere. I keep my distance now. I want to watch, not participate.

[Shooter 2.5]

I was wondering what that was all about.

I was driving west on 30 and cars slowed down with very little traffic. I noticed there were cars parked on the east bound side and I thought that traffic on that side was still moving. The car in front of me was still going slow and I didn't see anything else.

When I passed the bridge the car in front was still going slow and I didn't understand that he was driving to avoid a large piece of chain that I rolled over. 50 yards beyond that was a semi-truck on the side of the highway that had a fork truck on it. The fork truck was on the trailer but it was on an angle like it had broken loose from the trailer. I didn't see another fork truck anywhere and the one on the trailer looked all right but by that time I was regaining speed to do the limit. I thought there was nothing else wrong and I didn't see any emergency vehicles.

On the way back I was within a mile of the bridge with traffic backed up that I finally took the next exit. When I was driving toward Dallas I actually went over the bridge that was hit. There were a couple of police that were looking over the side to watch the traffic.

I wasn't listening to any news station and the one I was on didn't report anything, not even the accident.

[HHFi]

I'm in Dallas and work in radio, so I grew up on LaBella & Rody on KZEW. I met LaBella once when he dropped by a station where I worked. Seemed like a nice guy. Friends of mine who'd worked with him said he was a real loner, didn't socialize much with his co-workers, and his show was pretty much his life. One I talked to knew him in the KZEW days and said he thought of LaBella as such a hermit, he was surprised to hear he had a wife and adopted daughter. Obviously, he had opened up quite a bit in recent years. I feel really bad for them, this must be a horrible shock. Sad day all around for everyone here, both radio people and longtime rock music fans who used to fall over laughing at the Morning Zoo. Now, that was great, pre-Clear Channel-lowest-common-denominator morning radio.