A historic iron bridge was destroyed when a 23-year woman drove her 30-ton trailer across it - because she got her math wrong and did not realize she was five times over the 6-ton weight limit.
Mary Lambright was attempting to haul a 53-foot box trailer containing 43,000 pounds of bottled water to a Walmart parking lot with her Volvo truck on Christmas Day in Paoli, Indiana.
She drove onto the iron 1880 structure and immediately hit the top of the bridge as her truck was too high. The structure then buckled the under the pressure and collapsed at around 12 noon.
Lambright, of Fredericksburg, told police she knew the iron bridge had a weight limit of six tons and wasn't equipped for semis due to a sign that was posted, but said she didn't know how many pounds were in six tons. Lambright and her 17-year-old cousin who was in the passenger seat managed to escape unharmed.
'She's a very inexperienced driver,' Paoli Police Chief Randy Sanders said of Lambright explaining that she had left the Amish order a year or so ago, reports Herald Times Online.
The Amish use nonmotorized modes of transportation so her experience could be limited to horse-and-buggy transportation.
Most Amish are not permitted to drive motor vehicles but are allowed to hire outsiders — known as 'English' — to drive them.
Sanders says Lambright, was an independent driver, hauling the bottled water in a leased truck from Penske for Louisville Logistics.
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