Footage of drivers colliding with a bridge. The noises are unnecessary IMO.
www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c0_1351184890
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With so many hitting that bridge (sometimes seconds apart!) then one wonders if the bridge restriction shown is wrong and the drivers think they will fit.
With so many collisions it would make sense to lower the road by a few inches so a lot of those lorries would have gone under the bridge okay.
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>> it would make sense to lower the road by a few inches
We've a low rail bridge over the river around here. There's moves afoot to lengthen the navigable river, but this bridge is a problem. A bright spark in the council suggested digging out the river bed to make it deeper!
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>> one wonders if the bridge restriction shown is wrong and the drivers think they will fit.
Bridge height restrictions are invariably fictional and err fairly heavily on the side of caution.
A distinct possibility here is that the road beneath has been resurfaced, chewing a few additional inches. It'll still be within the posted limit, so the sign has not changed.
All the drivers who know the area and are used to blazing through the thing without stopping are getting a nasty surprise.
The correct approach is to make the signage accurate. The driver knows how tall the truck is and A
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Bright, those truckers and Caravan Drivers, glad we dont know any....
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It would definitely appear that the best technique is to go through it at speed
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they'd probably clear that bridge if they deflated all tyres before going under.
but yes as a post had said, why not lower the road by half a foot ?
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>> It would definitely appear that the best technique is to go through it at speed
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Avoids unpeeling the roof, just detaches the entire back and dumps it intact in the road!
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Lowers the emissions due to weight loss.
Nice environmental bridge.
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When in doubt I always close my eyes and select narrow gear.
Narrow gear works in both vertical and horizontal directions and allows me to accelerate and get past the obstruction quickly.
Pat
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I think that the problem is that the big yellow sign is placed on the outer beam. The drivers see the bottom of this as the limit, but the second beam is lower.
If there was a further indication on this, then drivers may see the danger.
On the other hand......
8o)
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www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/10/durhams-bridge-death-will-decapitate-any-tall-truck/3707/
There is a "overheight when flashing" sign with flashing lights that are triggered by vehicles that are too tall.
So you don't even have to know how tall your vehicle is!
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Aaaaahh but........those signs are useless and tell lies!
There used to be one at Indian Queens before the bypass and it would trigger and flash for anything so we all ignored it.
Likewise the one on the A46 between Nottingham and Bingham.
Pat
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>>There used to be one at Indian Queens<<
Goss Moor m8: goo.gl/maps/qpbjc
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Have you ever done it Pat - taken the top off a wagon under a low bridge? How about other truckers here?
I think we should be told.
:o}
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No, I can honestly say I've never done that. I had a good instructor who made me read every road sign!
The one at Goss Moor was close at times but I always loved the diversion through the village and narrow lanes going west bound anyway.
Pat
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>> I had a good instructor who made me read every road sign!
... and you knew (or remembered) the height of your vehicle. The notice before that bridge is quite prominent after all. Perhaps people don't know what feet and inches are now.
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>> ... and you knew (or remembered) the height of your vehicle. The notice before that
>> bridge is quite prominent after all. Perhaps people don't know what feet and inches are
>> now.
But they don't need to! Ok the flashing lights might err on the side of safety (although we don't know that), but even so, better safe than sorry?
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Hi.
Just entered this low bridge into my website - www.ajdor.co.uk
It's got thousands of low bridges on it from all over the world.
If anyone knows of any more that I haven't listed, or mis-quoted, then you could let me know here or via the email address on the site.
Thanks.
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>> Hi.
>> Just entered this low bridge into my website - www.ajdor.co.uk
Good lord, what a road encyclopaedia that is. Well done.
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You been Cornwall Pat? Well there.............
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Just read the reason why they cannot lower the road (sewer main). So my solution would be to make the height restriction lower than these trucks and therefore have more of the borderline ones detouring round. You could make it look like there is less clearance by having a flexible board to reduce height but if a fool comes through that would just fit then it gets pushed up out of the way.
There has to be a solution for this surely?
You could even say no tall vehicles at all! It is clearly nearly tall enough for some... but not quite. Drivers must be assuming they will fit because surely the bridge would not be a fraction to low.... obviously it is :-)
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 14 Dec 12 at 17:19
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There has to be a solution for this surely?
Simple
Radar controlled guns with a height sensor aimed at any over the bridge height vehicle... at the highest spot..
Prevents the 100 year old bridge being damaged and only damages the overhigh vehicles..
Simple..
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No i haven't clanged one, not yet..;)
Known a few that have though, one of which proved conclusively that i was right to abandon his transporter training after one terrifying day, he quite obviously was never going to be a lorry driver as long as he owned a certain orifice.
His training was completed by my boss of the time who got the 'ump with me for refusing to train him, fortunately trainee proved i was right by taking a loaded transporter through a low bridge at 50mph a few weeks later, the ensuing damage to the cars and transporter body was devastating, plus railway shut for many hours whilst engineers checked, kerching.
I love bridge strikes there's no hiding the vehicle in a dark corner then denying all knowledge which the usual suspects do with other damage, lorry job done on the cheap works out far more expensive over time, always has, always will.
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Never whacked one, there's a 13ft arch bridge half a mile from our yard and I always take the centre line in my 11'6" wagon even though two of them would probably make it through side by side.
A colleague at my last gaff managed to bend the curtainside body on a 7.5t backwards to an angle of about 30°, by trying to deliver a pallet to the FRONT of Toys R Us in Leicester. He walloped the anti-Transit height barrier going in to the car park. It wouldn't have been so bad, but he lives just around the corner and knew perfectly well the barrier was there.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 14 Dec 12 at 22:22
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I was staying the night at a friend's in Bingham some years ago. He had been a diver for British Rail and did their bridge inspection work in the area.
When he and a colleague were made redundant they used some of the money to form their own company and one of their customers was British Rail.
The night I was there he was called out to a bridge strike in Grantham under the ECML. I went along for the ride. A massively engineered girder bridge welcomed our arrival with one of those open top double decker buses parked on ' our ' side. Walking under the bridge, we found a bright red roof of a bus with no bus attached. GNER and EWS trains were creeping past above us at about 10 mph in both directions.
My pal scribbled a few notes on his clipboard, told the man in charge that it would take more than an aluminium bus lid to even scratch the girders and gave the go-ahead to speed the trains up.
Off we went, leaving others to clean up. ' Easy money ' he said ' Could do with a few more like that .' I have to say that the bus was out of service at the time...it certainly was after the crash !
Ted
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Ted... Is that the A52 bridge just before the southernmost crossroads on the old Gt North Rd through Grantham? That is a low one, but the signs there say 11'6" / 3.6m... Those two measurements are 9cm or 4in apart. My 11'9" / 3.58m lorry goes through just fine, well it does until they next dress the road surface anyway :)
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 14 Dec 12 at 23:28
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I don't really know the area, Dave. It was fairly built up and the road dropped down with a right hand bend on the approach from the west.
I think there were multiple rail tracks...not just two. I might be able to find it on Google Earth.
It seemed quite low to me, but it was about 10 yrs ago.
Ted
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Ha !..seemples......Springfield Road.
tinyurl.com/cf7ey3f
Ted
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Buses between Bath and Bristol used to bash into the low branches of trees beside the road here and there alarming the upstairs passengers. Never knew a window to break but the buses used to have dents in their foreheads (so to speak), quite big ones.
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goo.gl/maps/AEn8r
This one worried a lot of us for a few months.
It was always flagged as 'must load on 13' 10'' trailer and I had been there hundreds of times to 3663 just through the bridge with no problem.
I sailed down there one day and positioned myself carefully in the middle of the road when I automatically read the sign above the bridge and it said 13' 6''.
I slammed on the brakes and sat and had one of those arguments with myself.
There's been no structural work done on the bridge
I was here 3 weeks ago
There's nowhere to turn round now
Come on Pat, get a grip and give it a go!
I did and of course, it went through fine, so when I got to 3663 Iasked them and was told the local council had put up new signs and that one was wrong.
They had been told numerous times and said the would change it but it was like that for months.
It doesn't help that all the approaching warning signs for that bridge tell you it is 14' 3'' until you actually get to the bridge and find it says (or should say!) 14' on it.
Pat
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I like the two hay lorries. After the leading one dumps its load all over the road, the one following just blindly carries on and does the same thing. Idiots.
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It's usually a given that there's a small allowance between the stated height and the actual, and therefore a 13' lorry can safely pass under a 13' bridge; but a wise man proceeds with caution.
My own lorry being a rigid, the maximum height does not vary; the problem usually comes when drivers of artics fail to check the height of the fiftth wheel and compensate accordingly. Another one is the classic case of familiarity breeding contempt; there have been several instances of bus drivers simply forgetting that they're driving a double-decker rather than a single-decker. Simply re-surfacing the road, or going through a tight bridge empty rather than laden, can also have disastrous consequences.
It does of course pay to check your height before setting out. I've just been issued with a new truck; the stated height in the cab ( a legal requirement) was 12'5" but it simply didn't look right so I got the tape measure out. Sure enough it was 12'6"; I'm glad I did check it because that could easily have been the difference between a normal day and a disastrous one.
Last edited by: Harleyman on Wed 8 May 13 at 11:09
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Low Bridge! - rtj70
