Bridge strikes
The one mistake that can end a driving career in an afternoon. It is entirely preventable, and the step that matters most is the one drivers are least often told plainly.
If you have just hit a bridge, ring the railway now
03457 11 41 41 Network Rail, 24 hours
Or the number on the identification plate on the bridge itself. Before the police, and long before the depot. A strike can move a bridge and the track on it, and there may be a train on its way. Read the rest of this page afterwards.
Before you turn a wheel
Know the height, today's height
Not the height on the headboard. Coupler heights vary, the fifth wheel gets adjusted, and a trailer loaded is not a trailer empty. If the measured height and the headboard disagree, that is a discrepancy to report, not a rounding error to ignore.
Have it displayed in the cab, in both
IF YOUR TRAVELLING HEIGHT IS OVER 3 METRES AND THE CORRECT MAXIMUM HEIGHT IS NOT DISPLAYED IN THE CAB, YOU ARE COMMITTING AN OFFENCE. Feet and inches as well as metres, because British bridge signs are in feet and inches and the number in your head has to match the number on the sign without arithmetic.
Know the route before you are on it
A car sat nav does not know your height. An HGV sat nav only knows it if somebody typed it in, and it is still not a substitute for looking. Advance warning signs are NOT provided at every low bridge.
Check the load, not just the vehicle
The height that hits the bridge is the height of the tallest thing you are carrying, including equipment, sheeting and anything that shifted.
Reading the signs
Red circle
PROHIBITS. If your vehicle is higher than the figure, you must stop and must not pass it. Passing it means you are likely to hit the bridge and likely to be prosecuted.
Red triangle
WARNS. You should not pass it if you are higher than the figure shown.
No sign at all
Signs are only provided where the limit is under 16 feet 3 inches, which is 4.95 metres. No sign does not mean no limit, it means the limit is above that.
Arch bridge, white lines and goal posts
The signed height on an arch applies across a set width in the middle, normally three metres. Outside the lines the bridge is LOWER than the number, and that is the part that catches people who thought they had a few inches spare.
Feet and inches to metres
The signs are imperial. Your cab sticker may be metric. Nobody should be doing this sum at the last second.
| On the sign | In metres |
|---|---|
| 16 ft 3 in | 4.95 m |
| 16 ft 0 in | 4.88 m |
| 15 ft 9 in | 4.80 m |
| 15 ft 6 in | 4.72 m |
| 15 ft 3 in | 4.65 m |
| 15 ft 0 in | 4.57 m |
| 14 ft 9 in | 4.50 m |
| 14 ft 6 in | 4.42 m |
| 14 ft 3 in | 4.35 m |
| 14 ft 0 in | 4.27 m |
Print this and put it where you can see it.
If it happens, in this order
The order is the point. It is not a checklist to work through at your own pace.
1 Ring the railway. First. From where you are.
The number is on the identification plate on the bridge. If you cannot find one, Network Rail's helpline runs 24 hours on 03457 11 41 41. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU GET BACK TO THE DEPOT. A strike can move a bridge and the track on it, and there may be a train on its way. This single step is the difference between an expensive day and a disaster.
2 Then ring 999
Every bridge strike damages somebody else's property, and a road traffic collision causing damage to a third party must be reported. This is not optional and it is not a judgement call.
3 Then tell your employer
In that order. The railway and the police come before the phone call you are dreading.
4 Keep people away and DO NOT MOVE THE VEHICLE
A struck bridge can come down. Moving the vehicle can bring it down. Wait.
5 If it is not a railway bridge
999 first, then your employer, then the same two rules: keep people back and leave the vehicle where it is.
What it costs, and who it costs
- A train could be derailed. That is the reason for the order of the steps above, and it is not a dramatic way of putting it.
- You can be prosecuted, and the offences carry prison or the loss of your licence.
- You can lose your job, and your own car insurance can go up afterwards.
- Your employer can lose their operator's licence, which ends the jobs of people who were nowhere near it.
- Your employer pays for examining the bridge, repairing it, recovering your vehicle and its load, and the delays to every train held up.
Where this comes from
The facts here are checked against Network Rail's own good practice guide for professional drivers, NR/CE/GPG/004, which Network Rail publishes free to copy and pass on. The wording is ours. If you drive for us, this is also in the worker handbook, published before anybody signs anything.
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