Truck hits same Southern State Parkway overpass struck in April bus crash

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A box truck traveling eastbound on the Southern State Parkway on Friday hit the same overpass that was struck by a bus full of students nearly two months ago, according to state police.

State Police dispatched assistance just before noon, according to Sgt. Chris Fried, after the truck hit the Eagle Avenue bridge at Exit 18 in Lakeview. There were no reported injuries, he said.

The crash comes after one on April 8, which nearly sheared off the bus’s roof and injured three dozen students and chaperones, six of them seriously.

The students, ages 16 to 18, were reportedly returning from a trip to Europe and were headed to meet their parents at Walt Whitman Shops, better known as the Walt Whitman Mall, in Huntington Station.

The bus driver, Troy Gatson, of Bethlehem, Pa., was using a non-commercial GPS device, according to State Police Maj. David Candelaria.

At a height of seven feet, seven inches, the Eagle Avenue bridge has one of the lowest clearances of any Long Island parkway, and is struck from below by oversized trucks an average of three times a year, according to the DOT, as reported by the Herald in 2011.