Lorries - Hitting Low Bridges

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Ive lived in this area for about 2 years now and in that time we have experienced huge delays getting through Grantham (which is horrendous to drive through at best of times) due to lorries hitting the railway bridges. This has happened at least 4 times.


Now can someone explain to me how this is allowed to happen so often?

Surely a good idea before important bridges would be to have some kind of sacrificial A -Frame over the road about 20 metres before the actual bridge. If the bridge is 20ft high, have a 20ft steel frame downroad of it. Get through this, and you can get through the bridge.

That way if a lorry hits that, hes not gonna cause massive issues for structural engineers trying to reinforce the real bridge.
 
Drivers following sat nav's must be the main cause I would think

Thats not really an excuse for driving into a bridge. The height of the bridge is clearly marked, and I believe most large vehicles have their height prominently displayed within the cab.

I know following sat navs has been a topic thats come up before in relation to large vehicles following them up unsuitable roads etc, but I hate to think that theres drivers who assume that becuase they were routed a certain way they can forget about actually looking at what they are driving into.
 
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If it's busy at the best of times then checking for height restrictions is probably low down on the list of other things lorry drivers will be looking at. I imagine if you're having to concentrate on the vehicles around you, bicycles coming up your inside etc then a small triangle on top of the bridge might be missed.

4 isn't really that many though. How many crashes do car drivers get into everyday?
 
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If it's busy at the best of times then checking for height restrictions is probably low down on the list of other things lorry drivers will be looking at. I imagine if you're having to concentrate on the vehicles around you, bicycles coming up your inside etc then a small triangle on top of the bridge might be missed.

4 isn't really that many though. How many crashes do car drivers get into everyday?

But there's not a warning that you're gonna have a crash.

There's a warning of how high/low the bridge is :D
 
If it's busy at the best of times then checking for height restrictions is probably low down on the list of other things lorry drivers will be looking at.

It really shouldn't be. If you are that distracted that you completely fail to misjudge the size of your vehicle, with clear and abundant warning, and crash into an object as a result, then perhaps you should reevaluate your ability to drive.

The same goes for all road users.
 
If it's busy at the best of times then checking for height restrictions is probably low down on the list of other things lorry drivers will be looking at. I imagine if you're having to concentrate on the vehicles around you, bicycles coming up your inside etc then a small triangle on top of the bridge might be missed.

4 isn't really that many though. How many crashes do car drivers get into everyday?

Maybe not that many in absolute terms but they're crashing into an inanimate object where they know (or ought to know) how much clearance they need for their vehicle. I know other drivers crash into inanimate objects as well but that's not necessarily a resounding endorsement of their abilities either and it does seem like one of the things that a commercial driver should be very aware of even with the distractions of other road users.

I may just be making this up but I thought there were special sat navs available for commercial vehicles which would alert the drivers to obstacles on the route such as narrow gaps or height restrictions. Maybe they should be even more widely used if possible?
 
I used to live in Grantham, I think it was this bridge that got hit a few times, despite all the signs!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLfbNbO-_CjcS2bY-lXReOA!2e0

You'd think the drivers would have some idea of the size of the thing they're driving really, no matter if they're local or not.

Yeah that one got hit the other day, the other one that caused massive delays (im talking months of repairs) was the one here https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9...100&h=80&yaw=165.81303&pitch=0!7i13312!8i6656

Which actually has traffic lights which would give people time to actually get their brain in gear.
 
I agree with all of the above, but railtrack/network rail should have been made to dig out the road under bridges to allow trucks and double decker buses under, or replace the bridges with higher ones before now.
 
Yeah, cause that's a simple and inexpensive job. Most of the railway network is 50+ years old and lorries are a lot taller than they were a few years ago.

It's not hard to check the height badge in the truck and compare it to the sign placed well before the bridge advising of the height.
 
Yeah that one got hit the other day, the other one that caused massive delays (im talking months of repairs) was the one here https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.9...100&h=80&yaw=165.81303&pitch=0!7i13312!8i6656

Which actually has traffic lights which would give people time to actually get their brain in gear.

Crikey 3.6m, that really is way too low for pretty much any HGV, even a box van will be close to that.

The first one is 4.5m and the white crossbar holding the sign shows the area that is at that height, hardest part is getting the other road muppets to let you drive down the middle :D
 
What makes you say that?
I deal with drivers on a regular basis and find them to be all sorts of levels of intelligence and ability.

Exactly, that's why some go hitting into the bridge and some don't.

I deal with drivers on a regular basis to and opposite our office is also a 4m bridge which has drivers causing mayhem once a month. 50:50 UK to foreign. Foreign I can forgive, the UK drivers no chance.
 
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