Massachusetts

New Mass. PSA on ‘Storrowing': ‘Together, we can not hit a bridge with a truck'

Watch the funny new video, set to that well-known Sarah McLachlan song, on how not to have your truck "Storrowed" during the upcoming move-in season from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation

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There were more “Storrowing” incidents in August than days in that month. Crashes in which trucks become wedged under overpasses of Storrow Drive in Boston are so prevalent, they’ve become a verb. The TEN looks at why they’re so common and what can be done.

The days are getting shorter, the air crisper and Boston's student hangouts more crowded — that's right, "Storrowing" season is here.

Trying a new way to reach college students and their parents before they damage their rental trucks, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation released a parody video pleading with newcomers.

"Do your part by looking for the signs, and, together, we can not hit a bridge with a truck. The bridges — and the trucks — will thank you," DCR social media strategist Ryan Hutton says in the video.

The video takes its cue from old ASPCA animal rescue ads that used to be ubiquitous on TV, which were also set to the forlorn Sarah McLachlan song "Angel." In those ads, McLachlan noted that viewers could support needy animals for only a few dollars a month; in the DCR video, the narrator says that, "For just $0 a day, you can not hit a bridge or an overpass."

Mark Garfinkel
A truck got stuck on Boston’s Storrow Drive under the Silber Way footbridge, Eastbound.
Mark Garfinkel
Mark Garfinkel
Mark Garfinkel
A box truck filled with water and ice overturned on Aug. 7 on the westbound side of Storrow Drive under the overpass of Kenmore Square.
The top of a truck ripped off after the driver tried to squeeze under the Dartmouth Street footbridge on Storrow Drive on July 27. The truck was then moved to Beacon Street to get it out of the way of traffic.
Yet another tractor-trailer truck fell victim to one of the low bridges on Storrow Drive in Boston, getting stuck underneath on July 22.

Massachusetts State Police
NBC10 Boston
The aftermath of a Ryder box truck striking the overpass on Thursday, July 5, 2018.
Massachusetts State Police
Mike Biuso
A struck truck on Storrow Drive on January 12.
@TheAwesomeBoston
Massachusetts State Police
Massachusetts State Police
This truck got stuck on August 30, 2016, just in time for college move-in day.
necn
@j goodell
This truck got "storrowed" on May 6th.
@CraigglesofDoom
Aftermath of a "Storrowing" on Memorial Drive in Cambridge on June 9th.
@CraigglesofDoom
Shamus Moynihan
This one happend on June 21st.
Shamus Moynihan
Diane McLaughlin
Diane McLaughlin shared this photo of a stuck truck on July 5.
Teddy Kokoros
Here's Teddy Kokoros' photo of a truck on July 20.
Dustin Fitch, Massachusetts State Police
This truck was "Storrowed" on the Bennington Street ramp onto Route 1A southbound on August 11th.
Chris Rucker
A truck hit an overpass and rolled over on Jan. 12, 2018.
NBC10 Boston
This moving van out of Maine hit an overpass on Storrow Drive westbound on July 24, 2018.
NBC10 Boston
A Storrowed truck in Boston on Friday, Oct. 15, 2021.
NBC10 Boston
A truck gets “Storrowed” overnight in Boston.
Getty Images
(Boston, Ma 011218) Workers unload the contents of a Servpro truck as it lays on its side, on the Kenmore off ramp from Storrow Drive west bound. January 12, 2018 Staff photo by Chris Christo (Photo by Chris Christo/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
Getty Images
BOSTON – MAY 4: A tractor trailer truck became stuck under the Fenway/Charlesgate ramp on Storrow Drive on May 4, 2015. (Photo by Jaclyn Reiss/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

For the uninitiated, at least once every few months, a person driving a truck will miss the many signs — "We put signs up everywhere," the video notes — about low clearance on Boston's Storrow Drive and Soldiers Field Road or, across the Charles River, on Cambridge's Memorial Drive, and the top of the vehicle will hit an overpass. Often, the impact of a "Storrowing" will open the roof up like a tin can.

Many of the incidents happen around Sept. 1, when most of Boston's leases start and rental trucks fill the streets, many driven by people from out of town moving for college or grad school and who aren't familiar with the local roads.

In a familiar scene, a truck was crumpled under a bridge on Boston's Storrow Drive.

The new video offers some helpful, if tongue-in-cheek, advice for drivers rushing around the city.

"Save a rented moving truck today by not blindly following your GPS directly into a low-clearance bridge. They even put the height of your truck right on your side. You can usually see it right in your rear-view mirror," Hutton says.

As of Thursday afternoon, the video was already DCR's most-watched reel on Instagram, according to the department.

It's all part of a new push on social media to engage more creatively with the public, DCR spokesperson Ilyse Wolberg told NBC10 Boston, teasing more hijinks to come ahead of Move-In Day on Sept. 3.

"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," Wolberg said in a statement. "We’ve tried being serious and informative and thought why not try to be funny and informative this year."

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