A truck slammed into the Route 304 overpass above Route 59 in Nanuet last Friday, triggering an emergency bridge inspection and lane closures that remain in place with no end date in sight. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital by Nanuet EMS, though the extent of the injuries has not been made available.
The crash prompted the New York State Department of Transportation to temporarily close the left lane of Route 59 westbound and the right lane of Route 304 northbound, according to Daily Voice. NYSDOT has confirmed that Route 304 northbound will stay reduced to two lanes at the Route 59 overpass while crews carry out bridge repairs, and the agency has not provided an estimated completion date.
Another Truck, Another Rockland Overpass
This is not the first time a truck has misjudged its clearance on a Rockland County highway this year. Just weeks earlier, an overheight tractor-trailer struck an overpass and overturned on the New York State Thruway in nearby South Nyack, injuring a motorist in a parked car and leading to tickets against the driver, according to NBC Washington. That earlier collision involved a vehicle exceeding the state's height restriction.
New York law caps the legal height for commercial vehicles without a special permit at 13 feet 6 inches on all state highways, per the New York State Department of Transportation. Anything taller requires an oversized load permit.
Steep Penalties Now on the Books
The stakes for drivers who misjudge their height have gotten considerably higher this year. Effective February 16, New York began imposing eight DMV points on a driver's license for overheight vehicle violations, on top of traffic fines ranging from $200 to $1,000 and potential jail time under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 385(2), according to the Benjamin Goldman Law Office.
That same statute says the owner and operator are responsible for compensating damage, separate from any criminal fines tied to the traffic infraction, the firm notes. The report does not address repair-cost recovery for the Nanuet bridge.
A Statewide Pattern of Bridge Strikes
The Nanuet crash fits into a much larger statewide problem. The New York State Thruway Authority recorded 56 overpass strikes across its highway system in 2024 alone, and 231 total bridge strikes over the five years from 2020 through 2024, per the Thruway Authority's own enforcement data. The broader total across all state roadways is not specified.
In response, NYSDOT has led a national public education push called Check Your Height, Know It's Right, an initiative the agency created in November 2023 that had expanded to 26 participating states by July, according to the AASHTO Journal. The campaign is aimed squarely at getting commercial drivers to verify their vehicle height before ever pulling onto the highway.
Route 304 Already a Construction Hotspot
The timing compounds an already messy stretch of roadway for Rockland County commuters. Route 304 intersects Route 59 near where the truck struck the overpass, according to Wikipedia's entry on the highway.
State and local officials announced a $16 million project in March to mill and repave Route 304 in Clarkstown from West Nyack Road to Route 9W during overnight hours, as reported by the Rockland County Times. NYSDOT contractors are separately running a bridge rehabilitation project on the Route 304 overpass spanning the Thruway in Nanuet, with southbound work targeted for completion this fall, according to News 12 Westchester. For drivers already navigating those bottlenecks, the fresh overpass strike adds yet another layer of disruption with no clear end date.
