WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. – A truck driver who said he was following a new route given by his GPS device crashed his semi full of peat moss into a railroad overpass in Washington County Thursday morning.

The driver said he tried to brake the big rig as it rolled on Southwest Grahams Ferry Road towards the bridge, which had an electronic insufficient height warning system that had activated.

The system flashes a red light at drivers if their vehicle is too big to fit under the overpass.

The driver was unable to stop the truck in time and the impact heavily damaged the trailer, peeling back part of the roof and bending the lower structure of the trailer.

Neither the driver nor his passenger, who was asleep at the time of the impact, were injured.

Standard enclosed semi trailers are typically 13 feet 6 inches tall. Signs posted at the bridge indicated there was only 12 feet 3 inches of space under the span.

Engineers checked out the bridge and could find no major damage. A train rolled over the bridge without problem as crews worked to extract the semi and offload the 40,000 pounds of bagged peat moss.

The truck blocked one lane of the rural road for several hours Thursday morning.

The driver said he was following directions from a GPS device in the truck and it was the first time he had taken the new route.

The crash took place just a few hundred yards from the destination the truck driver was ultimately trying to reach.