This week's "holy crap" video

Dont know if it is true but i heard he was pulling into the bank to make the first payment on the travel trailer.

I was the one driving the truck and I was not going to pay the first note.

Angels were among you.

God was definitely with you. Tell Ty I said hello.

[...] Truck and trailer smash into bank: Check out the video here, and then check out the photos of the aftermath here. [...]

It makes me wonder how well the structual design was for it to come down like that, I know he was not driving that fast and it didn't look like it hit that hard. But i agree Angels where with you and your son that day

Just an East Texas misshap, It could happen to anyone!!

Are you people serious? This is very obviously an act of complete stupidity or/and ignorance.

To finish one of the sentences above... This could happen to anyone -who lacks the know-how, skill and sense to pull a trailer of this size.

I'm glad you and your son escaped unharmed. I hope the bank punishes your idiocy with some hefty repair bills though, as this could have led to the tragedy of innocent bank customers.

I may be a little late to write, but that was definately an engineering flaw! It looks like the roof was just laying on the pillars. I watched a large cube van do the same thing at the bank in my town, and the roof didn't even budge, and it was just as big. The one on here didn't even hesitate. There's a construction company that should have the crap sued right out of them!!!!!

That was obviously a driver mistake that shouldn't have happened, but that kind of mistake should have been taken in to consideration when the bank was built!

There was definately someone watching over those two!

Old news this is. That roof came down like the democrats in November.

This is oooooold. This video has been circulating for years, take a not from Tosh and find newer ones.

=)

If you are going to take the time to write the story , put up three pictures, why not just include the link to the video. IDIOT!!!

Yeah...add ons shouldn't be attached by a few beams and held up with some posts. The bank is lucky a good wind didn't take it down, it seriously looks like an accident waiting to happen. Thank goodness he was driving a huge truck, and not a sedan, or we wouldn't be reading the part where it says everyone was unharmed.

Mr. Miller – the pic of the inside of your truck....amazing it held up so well. I had a dodge that got hit in the right front by a sedan, and the passenger door was in my lap. I hope your son isn't too freaked out about the accident.

I hope I'm still around to watch ole Clem make the 6p local news with his next stupid human trick. He strikes me as one who has at least once in the past has yelled, "Hey hon!!! Watch this!!!"

As for the driver, glad you and your son made it out ok. Not the worst thing you could have done. Plenty of others have made far worse mistakes than this. Fix'er up and keep on RV'ing...

what would have happened if someone else was banking that day at one of the other bays? They would have had the whole roof on their car.

I have seen this type of thing happen before many times... people underestimate the overhead clearance at a covered drive-in or overpass. It appears that the person was somewhat aware of the clearance, tried to go around the outside, but didn't know the overhang came out that far. They pretty much just clipped it with the top of the camper.
What disturbs me the most isn't the drivers lack of overhead aptitude, but that the drive-though toppled so easily. As can be seen in the pictures, those brick columns encase a steel tube (probably filled with cement, like many people have in their garage or basement). They may hold a roof up, but in no way can stand a forceful side-to-side motion with such a top-heavy load, unless attached to a steel grid above. Anchored steel poles connected to steel I-beams (much like a gas station, but to a lesser extent) should have been used in greater numbers (I counted maybe only 4 columns?).
Also, the drive-thru is not properly connected to the bank building itself. It appears as though it's a separate structure, just butted up to the side of the bank. Looking closely, there are no joist hangers or connections whatsoever. Look at how the ridge beam even snapped in half! I wonder what codes a drive-thru overhang is subject to. This structure was extremely under-built, improperly secured to the building, and needed more columns to support it. Thank goodness he didn't try to go directly under the drive-thru... Dodges aren't meant to take that kind of weight!

It looks like building codes were completely ignored! If a glancing blow from a 5th wheel could do that, just imagine what a tornado, which happens occasionally in Texas, would have done.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Ah....

This could have happened anywhere,but I lived in Texas for 3 years and they have absolutely the worst drivers I have ever encountered.There is no driver training in schools there ,so they start out wrong from the very beginning of their driving experiences.

I agree with the Jesse, seems to me there was a problem with the construction. If it fells thats easy this guy may have saved a few lives.

if God was with him, he wouldn't have hit the roof to begin with.

Jesus Take The Wheel

Happens more often than you think. It is typically Gas station overheads that get taken out. Crappy work , crappy code and crappy design. It will take several people getting killed and a hand full of lawsuits before anything changes. Yes he made a mistake hitting it, but it should not have fell apart that way either. Probably a really good idea to get a lawyer at this point.

@Miller: so not making a payment, just stupid. Engineering flaw in durability or not, YOU caused it to fall with crummy driving. Forget you, thank goodness no one ELSE was hurt.

@Dennis...I've lived in Texas most of my 60 years, but have driven in many other states, as well. Texas drivers DO have driver training - it is required to get a license. And when you consider that a good 50% of the drivers in this state moved here from other states because of our healthier job situation, I think it is unfair to characterize ALL "Texas" drivers in this way. This was obviously the case of a driver inexperienced with hauling a trailer, and a building not really up to code.

By the way, @JR, Center Texas (being only a couple of hours north of Houston) is more likely to be affected by hurricanes than tornados, but I agree that a good strong wind from EITHER weather source could have seriously damaged the building!

Old video is old.

Also: "Holy thread necromancy, Batman!"

This looked a lot worse when I originally saw the video, from the camera angle it looked as if the entire truck got crushed. Seeing these photos doesn't make it look nearly as bad though, the driver was lucky as hell.

While I'm glad no one was hurt, I personally wouldn't have attempted to go into any low clearance area while towing trailer. It does look like some pretty shoddy construction work.

@ Lee who said : October 8th, 2010 4:07 pm ET

"if God was with him, he wouldn't have hit the roof to begin with."

God does not protect us from our own stupidity.

That being said, I think it was a simple mistake of miscalculating the distance of the over hang combined with absolute laziness on the part of the construction company who built this building.

Once while we were having dinner, we heard a huge crash nextdoor.
Our neighbor's wife had just learned to drive, and after only 1 week, she drove her car right thru the garage wall into the living room. Luckily no one was hurt, but it sure looked weird seeing the vehicle in her house.

Ervin Raab

I'd agree, that roof was underbuilt.
Lucky no one else was under it...

'God was with him' and "angels were with him' my butt! He was just lucky.What if he was killed, what would you say then, 'The lord called him away' or 'It was his time'? Give me a break! I say if he died it would be NATURE thinning out the herd. Since he's alive, it's DUMB LUCK he is alive. Save your churchy nonsense for Sunday.

saw the video...all i can say is dumb asz