PITTSTON — It was stuck for less than an hour. But the Donald Trump truck wasn’t out of the clear after its undercarriage was pinned on the Water Street Bridge.
Around 4:30 p.m. on March 30, the truck was traveling down Kennedy Boulevard with interest in making a right turn onto the bridge. The truck got stuck on the corner, backing up traffic for nearly an hour. Pittston City Police wrote a citation because, at the time, they suspected the truck to be over the bridge’s weight limit.
Truck owner Bob Bolus and his trucking company’s $708 citation was withdrawn Tuesday at Pittston City Hall because the truck actually came in under the weight restriction. At the time the citation was written, the officer didn’t have access to the contents of the trailer.
“We spoke with the officer prior and, in fairness to him, he wasn’t allowed to look into the trailer because it was sealed,” Bolus said. “He assumed it was an overweight truck. We showed him the weight slip and it was well within the parameters to go across the bridge.”
According to Bolus and the truck’s driver Kishan Tomczyk, 45, of the Green Ridge section of Scranton, the truck, which carries no cargo, came in at 29,480 pounds – Water Street Bridge’s maximum capacity allowed is 40,000 pounds or 20 tons.
The only access to the trailer is a small hole used by Secret Service when the truck visits rallies across the country, Bolus said.
Tomczyk said it was a relief to get the citation withdrawn.
“I told (the officer) it was empty,” Tomczyk said of the truck. “I think it was just the size of the truck that he thought it was overweight.”
Tomczyk has been driving for Bolus since January, and driving large trucks since December. She said she should have been in the “straight lane” on Kennedy Boulevard instead of the right turn lane. That would have given her a better angle to approach the bridge.
Bolus said it’s a difficult turn to make and many truckers would struggle.
“It was just a miscalculation,” he said.
Tomczyk said there was a high amount of traffic during the incident and she “didn’t have a lot of room to play with.”
“I just took the turn too tight and I was in the lane that you would use if you were in a car,” she said. “I should have been over in the straight lane so I could swing out and let the trailer follow.”
A Lackawanna County businessman, Bolus donated the truck to the Donald Trump campaign earlier this year. Since then, the truck has been traveling the area, including making trips outside the state, in support of the Republican candidate for the presidency. The truck currently has several different drivers, Bolus said.