Railway Bridge Crash in Co Meath

Losty Dublin

Taken from www.meathchronicle.ie

A truck driver was lucky to escape with his life on Friday when he crashed into a railway bridge on the Kells to Ardee road near Castletown at around midday. The truck, which was transporting a digger hit the bridge, which collapsed onto the truck, including the cab. The driver had to be helped from the truck, but escaped serious injury. The road was closed for several hours and re-opened at 8.30pm on Friday evening.

Barry Kenny, spokeperson for Iarnrod Eireann, said that a local contractor had assisted the rail company's own team in clearing the site and making the bridge secure, before re-opening the road. He said it was fortunate nobody was killed or seriously injured in the incident.

Cllr Eugene Cassidy also said it was very lucky nobody was killed. He pointed out the entire top of the bridge is gone, but the uprights are still perfect.
"There are plans to open the railway line as a cycling and walking route between Navan and Kingscourt and I hope this won't impact on those proposals," he said.

http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/meathnorth/articles/2011/08/03/4005871-dramatic-crash-destroys-castletown-railway-bridge-on-busy-county-road/

:eek::eek::eek:

coylemj

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Taken from www.meathchronicle.ie
A truck driver was lucky to escape with his life on Friday when he crashed into a railway bridge on the Kells to Ardee road near Castletown at around midday.

Calling him 'lucky' smacks a bit of tounge in cheek because he sounds like a complete fcuking idiot to have pulled off that stunt.

foggy_lad

coylemj wrote: »

Calling him 'lucky' smacks a bit of tounge in cheek because he sounds like a complete fcuking idiot to have pulled off that stunt.

It begs the question how many other railway bridges would completely collapse on getting a slap from a lorry? Was there no maintenance of this bridge or were inspections carried out by the "Malahide" engineers?

SeanW

foggy_lad wrote: »

It begs the question how many other railway bridges would completely collapse on getting a slap from a lorry? Was there no maintenance of this bridge or were inspections carried out by the "Malahide" engineers?

Most of them, I would imagine, especially anything from way back, built from stone.

I would imagine that a "slap from a lorry" would be a rather severe level of force. It would logically follow that a bridge would need serious repairs after a strike.

Edited to add: The bridge was on a closed section of line, and I just checked it out (on Google Street View) and the bridge wasn't exactly a feat of supreme engineering to begin with. I think this is it:
http://maps.google.ie/?ll=53.788984,-6.729609&spn=0.002973,0.006899&z=17&layer=c&cbll=53.788913,-6.729677&panoid=P3Pjk4GiicAtFkxBygPpOg&cbp=12,230.29,,0,-11.9

CIE

Clearance of 15' 2" and the lorry still didn't clear? Any double-deck bus would have cleared quite easily. Even a US "tractor-trailer" would have made it. Since when did lorries become so overly tall in height?

L1011

CIE wrote: »

Clearance of 15' 2" and the lorry still didn't clear? Any double-deck bus would have cleared quite easily. Even a US "tractor-trailer" would have made it. Since when did lorries become so overly tall in height?

Flatbed carrying a digger.

CIE

MYOB wrote: »

Flatbed carrying a digger.

Couldn't find a low bed trailer to carry the digger on?

mickydoomsux

It surprises me that this kind of thing still happens every few months.

Utter lunatics out there on the roads.

-Corkie-

CIE wrote: »

Couldn't find a low bed trailer to carry the digger on?

He did have a low loader but the fool left the Jib up in the air rather than stretching it out towards the rear of the trailer.

SeanW

SeanW wrote: »

Edited to add: The bridge was on a closed section of line, and I just checked it out (on Google Street View) and the bridge wasn't exactly a feat of supreme engineering to begin with. I think this is it:
http://maps.google.ie/?ll=53.788984,-6.729609&spn=0.002973,0.006899&z=17&layer=c&cbll=53.788913,-6.729677&panoid=P3Pjk4GiicAtFkxBygPpOg&cbp=12,230.29,,0,-11.9

Yes, it's the now disused Navan to Kingscourt section. Last train was in 2002.

Zebra3

Do these fools ever get charged?

bmaxi

Didn't the guy who brought down the overhead wires at Merrion gates a while back do the same thing with the jib of a digger. Fcuking Gob****es, I drove a truck for years and the one thing that was always foremost in my mind was whether the load was safe and secure. One thing I will say in defence of these guys is, road signage about low bridges is not what it should be and is often not maintained. It's not uncommon, especially in rural areas, to see signs knocked down or buried in overgrown hedges or just non-existent, but really, you should be aware of your load.

coylemj

bmaxi wrote: »

One thing I will say in defence of these guys is, road signage about low bridges is not what it should be and is often not maintained. It's not uncommon, especially in rural areas, to see signs knocked down or buried in overgrown hedges or just non-existent, but really, you should be aware of your load.

Sorry, don't buy that at all, the bridge that's top of the 'hit' parade is on the N80 (Mountmellick road) out of Portlaoise, I don't think signage is the problem, as usual the problem is the nut holding the steering wheel....

http://www.tinyurl.ie/4iv

-Corkie-

coylemj wrote: »

Sorry, don't buy that at all, the bridge that's top of the 'hit' parade is on the N80 (Mountmellick road) out of Portlaoise, I don't think signage is the problem, as usual the problem is the nut holding the steering wheel....

http://www.tinyurl.ie/4iv

Ya +1 I often have to carry stuff like this and there is absolutley no excuse for it. Its gross incompetence on the drivers part. There should be bigger fines and points for it.

The only loser is the Hauliers insurance company which rises everyones premium at the end of the day.:mad:

dowlingm

We need to have dispensible structures - simple metal or wood arches - erected on the approaches to bridges in service. The reality is though that IE should have no responsibility for this bridge - after 3-5 years of non-revenue service it should transfer to a holding body which takes responsibility for the structures without cost to passengers and freight customers on active lines.

knotknowbody

bmaxi wrote: »

One thing I will say in defence of these guys is, road signage about low bridges is not what it should be and is often not maintained. It's not uncommon, especially in rural areas, to see signs knocked down or buried in overgrown hedges or just non-existent, but really, you should be aware of your load.

In some cases signage is poor, but not this bridge it is well signposted at the previous junction (with an alternative route also signposted) which is only about 500-600 metres prior to the bridge for this driver, then reminder sign before the bridge, plus obviously the bridge itself and the sign attached to it are fairly obvious before you come to it, in my opinion the driver has no excuse and should have his HGV licence revoked as he is incompetent. We need to start taking things like this seriously or they will continue to happen.

BrianD

foggy_lad wrote: »

It begs the question how many other railway bridges would completely collapse on getting a slap from a lorry? Was there no maintenance of this bridge or were inspections carried out by the "Malahide" engineers?

Similar equipment being carried on a truck hit the flyover at Rathcoole resulting in a relatively modern bridge having to be rebuilt at a cost of millions in construction and disruption.

If you are carrying something like this on a truck the onus is on the driver to have planned his route - driving it without a load if necessary - and he alone is responsible for the damage caused.

@seanw interesting thing about the Google streetview... do a 360 and there's a HGV following the Streetcar!