Foolish drivers

[Noel]

Darwin

[Broithe]

Video here now -

- containing the hashtag #truckwit ...

[Broithe]

Bridge strike north of Malahide.

 

[jhb171achill]

Love their hashtag...

 

Hopefully the driver will be sacked and banned from driving for the max time possible. Roads are bad enough without morons like that.

[Broithe]

It's not always the driver.....

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-36111795

[Broithe]

More complicated that the usual bridge strike.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-36293045

 

[Broithe]

I came across this bit of bedtime reading for those interested in bridge strikes.

 

http://www.crr.ie/publications/railway-bridges-in-ireland-bridge-strike-trends/

[Broithe]

Bridge strike currently causing issues through Port Laoise.

[Broithe]

Sometimes a bridge-strike is cleared up after a quick inspection - sometimes not...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-37204050

 

[JasonB]

Unbelievable,never ceases to amaze me,could have been so much worse as well.

[Noel]

Darwin!

[Broithe]

To be fair, it looks like somebody else may have initially hit a supporting pillar, then others hit the (now lowered) bridge.

 

Only one injury, apparently, a motorcyclist with a few cracked ribs.

 

It was a footbridge, and, presumably, there was nobody on the collapsed section at the time.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Broithe

[Broithe]

Further reports suggest that the digger on the back of the truck on the hard shoulder connected with the lowest part of the sloping footbridge and dislodged it.

 

 

Also, it seems that the footbridge may have been closed for repairs.

 

All told, it was a remarkable escape, even for the sole injured party.

[Broithe]

This may have some beneficial effect, eventually.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37703556

[hurricanemk1c]

I see one big issue there - sat nav companies will have to pay to access the data

[Broithe]

I see one big issue there - sat nav companies will have to pay to access the data

 

Until somebody like Google does it on a Street View type road survey in the future, perhaps...?

[Noel]

This may have some beneficial effect, eventually.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37703556

 

Hope so. I felt sorry for the poor chap who foolishly drove an artic HGV down the tiny rural lane near where we live today. He had to reverse 1/4m all the way back up to the minor road, and then reverse a further 500m to a point he could turn the thing. If he had used google street view to preview the road he'd have realised he'd never have fitted, had no turning space, and not enough head room to get under the trees. There were four 'rabbits in the headlights' suvs behind him 'dooh what will we do' and I had to convince them to reverse back up to the top road so he could reverse back. Then I had to prevent further commuters heading down the lane again until he got clear. Took 20 minutes to clear up. Back in 2010 in the bad snow, on multiple occasions, tourists blindly followed sat nav to sally gap and wicklow gap, duly getting snowed in until mountain rescue got them out. S-61N Rescue 116 was called out to one 'foolish driver' stuck in the snow.

[Noel]

Until somebody like Google does it on a Street View type road survey in the future, perhaps...?

 

existing 'Street view' could have prevented todays mess. I was only delayed 20 minutes but the 'rabbits in the head lights' had already been there quite a while before I arrived behind them.

[Broithe]

I live on a main road into a 65,000 population town. It's fully closed for three months, with only a single parallel back lane, full of parked cars, as a diversion - the signs as you enter, half a mile before the closure, say Road Ahead Closed, fair enough - but the Businesses Open As Usual sign is perhaps a bit misleading, as they're all beyond the closure. I get eight to ten artics a day trying to turn here now, having thought they might be able to get as far as they need to. Nobody's hit anything yet, but statistics will prevail at some point, I fear.

 

There is a 'beautiful' permanent sign on the A55 near Bangor - Width Limit 12 Miles Ahead - but no idea of what the limit will actually be when you get there.

[Broithe]

It seems that people don't always notice...

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38171714

 

[Broithe]

Quick chat on the news just now - 95 bridge strikes this year, ten up on last year's total.

[DiveController]

Quick chat on the news just now - 95 bridge strikes this year, ten up on last year's total.

 

I wonder how long it will be before somebody starts compensating motorists for the loss of fuel and time caused by these delays? I presume the insurance company ends up paying for the bridge and rail delays,and compensation for rail passengers, or does it?

[Noel]

I wonder how long it will be before somebody starts compensating motorists for the loss of fuel and time caused by these delays? I presume the insurance company ends up paying for the bridge and rail delays,and compensation for rail passengers, or does it?

 

There was a famous case over 25 years ago when a very large crane in transit just grazed the underside of a large pedestrian over-bridge on a dual carriageway. Result road closed for weeks while bridge removed, eventually rebuilt. It went legal, but in the end after a few years the crane operators insurers were just about to cough up, when a junior researcher discovered the local authority was in fact at fault for the reduced bridge clearance due to a number of road resurfacing projects over the years when they had not removed some of the previous surfaces, therefore raising the level of the dual carriageway. The crane operator had originally correctly researched the clearance and would not have hit the bridge had the road been where it was supposed to be! If the junior researcher working for the cranes insurers had not discovered the mistake they would have paid millions. Instead the local authority rightly had to pay for the damage to the crane and the loss of hire revenue.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Noel

[Broithe]

The new bridge at Carrick on Suir will be half a metre higher, in an effort to let somebody else have the Most Struck Bridge Award in future years.

 

http://www.newstalk.com/Most-struck-railway-bridge-in-the-country-to-be-replaced

[murrayec]

If one looks at the bridges on the N11/M11 from Kilmacanogue to Loughlinstown an eagle eye will tell you 3 of the bridges are to low, worst is Kilcroney Bridge outside Bray- I actually saw a log truck with its grabber stretched over its load scrape under at about 60mph, the tyres and suspension just allowed enough leeway to avert a nasty disaster. Large mobile cranes cannot go under this bridge they have to drive up the Bray off ramp and back down the other side, when they are doing this they have to fill the depressed roundabout with sand so the grading is correct to get over the hump. The two north Bray bridges that span over the road have had their pre-cast cladding fascias removed so that trucks do not hit them!!

[skinner75]

would it not have been a hell of a lot cheaper to install a few I-beam barriers up the road from the bridge? Let the trucks smash into them instead - easy to replace a damaged I beam, and the truck driver learns a lesson

[Noel]

If one looks at the bridges on the N11/M11 from Kilmacanogue to Loughlinstown an eagle eye will tell you 3 of the bridges are to low, worst is Kilcroney Bridge outside Bray- I actually saw a log truck with its grabber stretched over its load scrape under at about 60mph, the tyres and suspension just allowed enough leeway to avert a nasty disaster. Large mobile cranes cannot go under this bridge they have to drive up the Bray off ramp and back down the other side, when they are doing this they have to fill the depressed roundabout with sand so the grading is correct to get over the hump. The two north Bray bridges that span over the road have had their pre-cast cladding fascias removed so that trucks do not hit them!!

 

If the bridges are under the regulation height for that type of road, all parties involved in a collision or enjoined RTA could sue the local authority. (i.e. as happened in Dublin decades ago when a pedestrian bridge was struck by a crane because the road level had been raised reducing clearance due to being resurface on multiple occasions over the years).

 

would it not have been a hell of a lot cheaper to install a few I-beam barriers up the road from the bridge? Let the trucks smash into them instead - easy to replace a damaged I beam, and the truck driver learns a lesson

 

Yes that does seem eminently and economically sensible, however there is still a H&S risk of involving other traffic in RTA either behind the truck, or coming in opposite direction when it hits the barrier, either stops abruptly, or goes out of control, or sheds its load, or topples over, not to mention bits of debris showering pedestrians, motor cyclists, cyclists, protected species of Patagonian snails, etc.

 

During summer months it is common practice to see some HGV trailers on motorways overloaded with large round straw and hay bales, held on with mere tensioning straps.

[Broithe]

Here -

- one side of the dual carriageway was dropped about five feet, to allow oversize loads through, rather than raise the bridge.

 

This sort of thing.

 

 

It does mean that only the southbound side can be used, even if going north, which does cause a bit of chaos.

[Broithe]

This may be the new C-o-S bridge.

 

 

[leslie10646]

would it not have been a hell of a lot cheaper to install a few I-beam barriers up the road from the bridge? Let the trucks smash into them instead - easy to replace a damaged I beam, and the truck driver learns a lesson

 

That's precisely what Network Rail has done at Pangbourne on the GW main line - and probably elsewhere.

 

There's s beam across the road about 3/4 yards in front of the bridge carrying the four track main line - so any lorries would be given a haircut! And the trains keep running!

 

Leslie

[leslie10646]

This business of resurfacing roads has its railway equivalent.

 

Network Rail (and probably good old IE and NIR) "improve" the ballasting on lines, effectively raising the trackbed. No problem for the usual boxes going under bridges, but steam locos with higher chimneys? I remember one of the preserved King Class locos arriving in Paddington without either its chimney top, or was it the safety valve?

 

Progress, don't you love it?

[murrayec]

Noel

 

Kilcroney bridge should be renamed 'Strawfall Bridge' because thats exactly what happens- heading north after the bridge the road side shrubbery is regularly covered with straw!!

 

Eoin

[Broithe]

Merrion Gates again this morning.

 

 

[Noel]

Merrion Gates again this morning.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27046[/ATTACH]

 

 

Just build a bridge, its bonkers with the traffic volume using that road to have a level crossing from a traffic management point of view. Its not rocket science to design a bridge that will fit in the available space.

[Tarabuses]

The design already exists.

 

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=101471233