Find out which bridge has been hit most by lorries in the West Midlands
It's the sixth most lorry-bashed in Britain and the most frequently hit in the West Midlands, according to a new report.
The St John Street bridge in Lichfield has been hit by lorries 86 times since 2009, more than any other bridge in the region.
Network Rail has called for lorry drivers to memorise the height of their vehicles to avoid accidents. ing into railway bridges and causing hours of delays to train passengers.
The national railway tracks in total suffer almost 2,000 bridge strikes every year, costing the taxpayer some £23m in damages and delays.
Sir Peter Hendy, chairman of Network Rail and a driver of a double decker bus himself, said it is ‘only a matter of time before road or rail users are killed’ as a result of drivers not knowing their vehicle height.
He said: “Size does matter when you’re a professional driver in a heavy vehicle.
“Not knowing the size of your vehicle or load could lead to a serious accident, and the loss of your licence.
“Every incident creates potential delay for tens of thousands of passengers and potential costs for taxpayers, and this is happening multiple times a day.
“It’s only a matter of time before road or rail users are killed as a result of this carelessness; we need professional HGV drivers and their operator employers to get behind and support this campaign to eradicate bridge bashing, which reaches epidemic levels at this time of year.”
Last year a bridge strike in Rugeley cost Network Rail over £800,000, with landmark legal cases now meaning that they can claim back 100 per cent of the huge costs incurred by bridge strikes.
Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant has said that he believes more signage could help ease the problem and asked for work to be done to look into the possibility of this.
He said: “I am told that once again this is often due to truck drivers taking a short cut and treating roads in Lichfield District as a rat run.
“We see this in Yoxall too.
“While I am not calling for a weight limit yet on roads like St John Street in Lichfield, I will be asking County Highways to conduct a detailed study into whether there needs to be additional warning signs from the south of the railway bridge.
“It seems that already very clear signs on the bridge itself are not attracting the attention of truck drivers.”
