BU Today: Who were you hoping to reach with this video?

Hutton: We wanted to blanket it as much as possible. It’s one of the other reasons that something funny and eye-grabbing is advantageous. Ideally, we obviously want people moving into the area to see the video, but it’s also just important for people moving around the area—native Massachusetts residents who’ve never had the occasion to go on these roads before.

BU Today: When a move-in truck does hit a bridge or overpass, what kind of problems does that create for local authorities?

Hutton: We have those black-and-yellow “Cars only” low-hanging signs. Most of the time people smack those and that wakes them up and they stop. They then have to figure out a way to back up. On move-in weekend, state police are out in force on those three roads, so they’re ready and waiting.

If the drivers do make contact with the bridge, that lane gets closed. Usually, if they can’t back it out, they have to call a wrecker to pull it out. Some times it’s been worse than others. Google image search “storrowing,” and you’ll see some of it’s not bad, some of it’s pretty bad.

We then have the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and our engineers go out to inspect the bridge to make sure that it’s still fine. In the time I have been with DCR, no bridge strikes have resulted in work needing to be done. I believe our engineers say it’s because [the bridges] were built pretty sturdy and box trucks typically aren’t the most robustly built.

BU Today: Do “storrowing” accidents increase around move-in weekend?

Hutton: Absolutely. There’s a huge increase in—if not actual bridge strikes—instances where the state police have to come and help somebody back out after they’ve hit one of the warning signs.

BU Today: How did you come up with the video concept?

Hutton: Well, it kind of goes back to when the Healey-Driscoll administration came into office, as they started appointing new personnel throughout the different secretariats. The communications director at our parent [office], the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, was very much into loosening the reins a little bit and allowing us to have some fun on social media. 

When the time came around for talking about move-in weekend, how we were going to approach it…the suggestion was tossed out there, “Well, you could use the Sarah McLachlan sad song,” kind of showing how funny it is. And then it was like, “Let’s just do a straight up parody of it.” It’s instantly recognizable to people from a few different generations. It’s funny. We can kind of make it a little bit goofy.

BU Today: Were you expecting the video to get press attention?

Hutton: When we launched it, my communications director at DCR did say, “Oh, maybe we’ll get picked up by the local news,” and I was like, “That’d be great. The more people that spread it around, the better.” But I was not prepared for the sheer number of different news outlets that have picked it up.

BU Today: What was your reaction when you saw the video’s news coverage?

Hutton: I was glad. My goal is to educate the public. I run our social media, and almost everything you see on there I wind up generating. So it’s always good when the message reaches far and wide.

BU Today: Did your education at BU shape your work today?

Hutton: Yeah, definitely. One of the things that attracted me to the program at the time was that the photojournalism-specific grad program was a crash course. Two semesters, one year, focused heavily on being out in the field, producing photos and video at the same time—which is difficult when you can’t concentrate on one. But I did get the opportunity to learn how to do both. 

My job is incredibly fun. I get to do something new every day in a different place. From Mount Greylock to the Harbor Islands. It’s very cool. For this, I got to have some goofy fun with it.