»In which one man drives while the other man dreams

The New York Times has a grandiose account of CC Meyers's phenomenal work on the 80-580 interchange, which his company completed under bid. Good ol' moxie, the sort that Kafka longed for in Amerika (of which there is a new translation).

Mr. Myers said he made one misstep in the ramp project: telling a TV reporter it would be completed before Memorial Day weekend. It was, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had wanted to make that promise public himself. “I’m not going to play games with him,” Mr. Myers said.

The governor praised Mr. Myers at a news conference, but did not introduce him until reporters began asking questions: all for Mr. Myers.

That made him especially glad he had worn those ostrich cowboy boots. “I wanted to be a lot taller than him that day,” he said.

The welding sub-contractor's description of having two drivers in each truck, so they could drive more-or-less continously reminded me of the Pere Ubu's "historical" collection of bootlegs titled " One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams", itself from the old trucker motto, "One Man Drives While The Other Man Sleeps." Perhaps that last word should be "dreams"; that has a suggestion of "screams" which seems altogether appropriate for truck-driving in this context, because a addle-pated truck driver took out this impossibly important interchange. Another confounded truck driver hosed part of the Lincoln Tunnel th' other day. Great photo:

UPDATE: SFist has some comments about other notable truck accidents, including the ostrich spill on the Golden Gate Bridge.