DEATH By Taco Bell Sign, USA

Diane Durre
Pic Source

Diana Durre, of Chambers, Nebraska, died after a 75-foot (23 m) Taco Bell sign fell on top of the truck cab she was in. The pole broke at a welded joint about 15 feet (4.5 m) above the ground owing to strong winds. The sign fell right on top of the quad-cab pickup.

The Taco Bell sign was installed and built in 1999 by the Tri City Sign Company of Grand Island. It cost $17,000, according to the sign permit.

Diana was meeting a Wyoming couple to sell them some dogs. They had agreed to meet in North Platte, Nebraska, at about 1 p.m., “right underneath the big Taco Bell sign.”

The dogs were in the back seat and were uninjured. They were taken to the North Platte Animal Shelter. They consisted of a female Yorkie and a male Norich Terrier.

The Wyoming couple showed up after the accident.

The National Weather Center Office in North Platte recorded wind speeds of 30-35 miles an hour at the time at the North Platte Regional Airport, with an occasional gust of 40 miles an hour.

Signs of that size are generally engineered to withstand straight line winds of up to 110 mph, according to Sharon Neglay of Custom Craft Sign Company. She said that flexible faced signs are engineered to bend and flex with increased winds.

The Taco Bell sign is not even the first high rise sign to fall in North Platte.

On March 11, 1988, a $170,000 tour bus bound for Honolulu Hawaii, was crushed by a 100-foot Motel 6 high-rise sign. The bus was being transported to Oakland Calif., where it was to be shipped by boat to its final destination.

The sign broke about 15 to 17-feet above the ground and fell in the middle of the bus. No one was inside and there were no injuries. The sign fell after a winter snow storm moved through the area.

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