A box truck struck the Fenway overpass sign on Storrow Drive early Tuesday morning and rolled onto its side, briefly trapping the driver inside before crews freed them and rushed them to the hospital. Massachusetts State Police responded to reports of the crash, and the extent of the driver’s injuries had not been shared as of Tuesday morning.
A Familiar Hazard Along the Charles River Parkway
The crash is only the latest example of what locals call “Storrowing,” a phenomenon in which tall box trucks and rental vehicles collide with the low overpasses lining Storrow Drive. The parkway features vertical clearances as low as 9 to 10 feet in several spots, well below the standard federal roadway clearance of 13 feet 6 inches, according to Mass.gov. The term spikes in frequency during late August and early September, precisely the window this crash falls into.
That timing is no coincidence. Greater Boston is home to roughly 160,000 college students spread across 64 higher education institutions, and about 70% of residential leases in the region start on September 1, according to Mass.gov’s reporting on the seasonal trend. That annual deadline sends a wave of out-of-town drivers into the city behind the wheel of rented box trucks, many unfamiliar with the parkway’s restrictions.
Why GPS and Warning Signs Haven’t Solved the Problem
State agencies have long directed commercial vehicles and box trucks away from Storrow Drive, Memorial Drive, and Soldiers Field Road, steering them instead toward routes like Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, or the Massachusetts Turnpike, per Mass.gov. Massachusetts State Police and MassDOT have also repeatedly warned that standard consumer GPS apps such as Google Maps do not filter routes by vehicle height, a gap that often sends unsuspecting rental truck drivers straight onto the restricted parkway.
In response, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation introduced a pilot program in August 2023 installing high-visibility “CARS ONLY” signs that hang at bridge clearance height, designed to physically strike tall vehicles as a soft first-contact warning before they reach the actual overpasses. The program has since expanded, but Tuesday’s crash shows the risk persists even with those measures in place.
Bowker Overpass Has a History of Bridge Strikes
Tuesday’s rollover happened near the Fenway overpass, an area with a documented history of serious collisions. In May 2024, a tractor-trailer struck the nearby Bowker Overpass on Storrow Drive westbound, forcing authorities to shut down westbound lanes during peak morning rush hour. A bus also struck a low-clearance bridge on Storrow Drive in April 2024, adding to the parkway’s long list of vehicle-versus-overpass incidents…