Overheight vehicles hitting railway bridges has become a frequent occurrence. Network Rail is working to educate the haulage and bus industry but also pursues compensation claims against the offenders. Chris Milner investigates.
SOMEWHERE in the country, a railway bridge is hit by a vehicle every day. It’s a staggering statistic, and such incidents continue to be a significant risk to railway safety. Official figures reveal bridge strikes outweigh level crossing incidents by a ratio of more than four to one. The Office of Rail and Road statistics for 2015/16 show that there were 1,753 bridge strikes, while level crossing incidents numbered just under 420.
While the number of bridge strikes equates to nearly five each day, there has been a generally downward trend since a peak in 2007/08 of 2,374. Even so, more than 90% of bridge strikes affect rail overbridges.
The majority of such incidents are caused by HGVs, but culprits can also include buses (around 40 such incidents a year), light vehicles and vehicles carrying plant equipment. Some years ago there was a minor incident at Atherstone where a caravan being towed under the 7ft-high bridge next to the station became wedged; so it can be all kinds of vehicle that put the railway at risk.
Monthly Subscription: Enjoy more Railway Magazine reading each month with free delivery to you door, and access to over 100 years in the archive, all for just £5.35 per month.
Click here to subscribe & save
Interest in why there are so many such incidents and what collectively Network Rail, local police forces and local authorities were doing to reduce them stemmed from a series of 11 incidents in 12 months affecting the same bridge over the A5 at Hinckley, close to my home.
Read more in the May issue of The RM – on sale now!
