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Bridge bashing


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12 hours ago, Ken.W said:

 

Or Bonds Aston would punch a hole through an empty curtain-side container

Then the baddies following in the beemer punch a hole into a tank-tainer containing something particularly nasty

coors light ?

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On 21/07/2020 at 23:19, 101 said:

 

Like how in that report, as the bus which was brand new was returning empty to the depot it's electronic destination display was displaying the Govt's Covid advice...

 

At the time it hit the bridge the bus was saying ....

 

STAY ALERT

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  • 4 weeks later...
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22 hours ago, caradoc said:

Another double-decker bus loses its roof at a railway bridge, this time at Wishaw, Scotland. Fortunately, no injuries reported. 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-53810869

 

I'm glad to read that the driver was downstairs at the time!

 

First Bus said three passengers and a driver were on board and all were downstairs at the time of the incident.

 

Mind you, he would have had a better view of the upcoming disaster, if he was indeed upstairs at the time!

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2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

I'm glad to read that the driver was downstairs at the time!

 

 

When one-man operation was first introduced in Dublin, Paddy Murphy turned up at the depot one morning. Five minutes after booked time he hadn't taken his bus out, so the depot manager went over to see what the problem was.

 

"Where's my conductor?" Paddy asked.

 

"Oh, we've done away with them," replied the manager. "You'll have to collect the fares now."

 

Paddy wasn't happy about this but he drove round to the bus stop, picked up his first few passengers and set off on the route. The manager went back to his office and heard a loud crash coming from outside. He looked out of the window to see Paddy's bus wrapped round a lamppost. The manager rushed outside in time to see a dazed Paddy stepping off the bus.

 

"Are y'all right, Paddy?" the manager asked. "What happened?"

 

"I don't know," Paddy replied. "I was upstairs collecting the fares at the time...."

 

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Seriously, though - if it wasn't for the need for the driver to be downstairs to collect the fares, I've often wondered what the effect would be of having the driving position upstairs. I'm sure it would cut down a lot on bridge bashes!

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  • 3 weeks later...

The bridge carrying the ECML over the A505 here has had so many accidents it is well known to Mr Plod as there was a bridge strike every few weeks.  I used to walk under it twice a day as part of my commute.  Clearly signposted 13'3" /4m.  All three approach roads had a massive grey sign 6' square that turned bright yellow with the legend "Overheight Vehicle Divert" with 4 yellow flashing lights when a height detector is tripped.  Those signs have since been replaced with something similar but smaller.  The lorry detour to avoid this bridge is about 12 miles.

 

Once I saw a lorry in trouble there as I went for my morning train and another one when I came home the same day.  

 

Another time I saw a lorry stacked high with brand new wheelbarrows and the driver had realised just in time that his load was too high.  He was blocking traffic in that direction to unload a good many barrows which he then proceeded to wheel through to the far side and reload once he'd got the height down enough!

 

The best incident was when a police driver realised the traffic jam ahead of him meant that yet another lorry was stuck, overtook the queue on his blue lights but without using his sirens just as the driver was walking back to his cab, having spoken to the driver of the following car which had stopped well clear so that he could back out and turn round.  The police car pulled in right behind the lorry in his blind spot and the lorry promptly backed into it .... then there were sirens going for the next half hour as every copper in the district came to have a good laugh.   I bet that sounded good in court ... you are charged that you hit a railway bridge which was stationary at the time then you backed into a police car with a flashing blue light on its roof.  I decided it was prudent to clear off in case I got arrested as a witness!

 

It wasn't just the clearance that caused problems.  The road dips under it to form a sump which often didn't drain properly after heavy rain (they do seem to have fixed that at last) and several times I have seen it flooded to about 2' deep.  It was quite common for cars to come to grief trying their luck without realising the depth, though single deck buses didn't have trouble.  I once saw a a motor cyclist try it, his engine stopped and he fell off into to the water.  After he picked himself up and pushed the bike out, he noticed he had lost his number plate.  So went back and scrabbled about for 10 minutes in the dirty water till he recovered it.

 

The abutments have been heavily reinforced and capped with a stout girder either side of the line to protect the railway.  Given the prominent active signage, I don't know why it used to happen so often, nor why the incidence has dropped as the new signs seem a lot less conspicuous..

 

 

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