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FHP cites driver of tractor trailer that crashed into I-275 overpass

 
Published Aug. 23, 2013

TAMPA — Florida Highway Patrol troopers have found the driver of a flatbed semitrailer whom they say took off after crashing into an overpass Tuesday morning on Interstate 275.

Patrick Bruce Mulvihill, 57, of Hudson, was headed south on the interstate about 9:22 a.m. hauling an industrial excavator on the back of his truck, troopers said. The excavator was mounted higher than 13 feet 6 inches — the maximum height that state law allows motor vehicles to stand, authorities said.

The excavator collided with the bottom of the Kennedy Boulevard overpass as Mulvihill drove through, troopers said, throwing pieces of concrete and other debris onto the roadway. No one was injured, but the collision did cause an estimated $7,000 in structural damage. The debris also damaged the undercarriage of a car that was traveling behind the semitrailer.

Mulvihill did not stop after the collision, authorities said. But troopers found him based on witness descriptions of the truck, which was found to be a 1984 Peterbilt tractor trailer operated by Crockett's Towing, of Land O' Lakes, officials said. He was issued a citation transporting a load with a height violation.