Station Road had to be closed this afternoon as a lorry has struck the railway bridge.
The incident happened around 1pm when a lorry travelling north on Alderley Road turned right into Station Road, damaging the railings and losing a wheel arch as it did so. The driver did not stop but proceeded down Station Road where it was too high to clear the railway bridge and was stopped by the steel protector.
The road was closed by the police while the recovery was in progress. The lorry was cleared at 3.05pm and a police spokesperson confirmed the driver was not arrested.
Matt Walker, age 17, who witnessed the incident told wilmslow.co.uk "I was walking up and saw a lorry crash into three fences, then saw and heard the lorry crash into the bridge under the train lines.
"The train were cancelled. The man was not from this country but maybe tired from what the police were saying. The fences were near the Bolin Fee in Wilmslow. Cheshire police were at the crash five minues later."
Ryan Cooper was also at the scene. He said "I was walking to the train station and saw the back of a lorry go into the air and a massive crash and not something that you see every day but the lorry was then stuck under the bridge."
Trains were stopped as a result of the incident but started operating shortly afterwards.
Cllr Rod Menlove said "This was a totally avoidable accident that appears to be a result of bad driving. The railings will need to be replaced and I have already contacted Highways to press that the cost is charged to the haulage company insurance. The condition of the bridge is a matter for Network Rail."
Comments
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Then to drive his truck under a too-low bridge immediately afterwards is not an indicator of competence.
The railways suffer many, many bridge strikes each year by HGV drivers. They can cause major rail delays as the trains have to be halted until a civil engineer has declared the bridge safe to carry trains, or worse, imposed speed limits or closure pending repairs. The rail passengers so inconvenienced sure as heck will be blaming the railway, not the cowboy who drove his tuck into the bridge.
This driver in his incompetence only damaged property in this instance. Think how much worse it could have been had there been pedestrians waiting for the pedestrian lights to go 'green' to cross the road on that central reservation.
Councillor Menlove's comments are entirely justified, except he called it an accident, which it wasn't.
I also presume the driver didn't do it deliberately as some sort of botched al Qaeda plan, so the use of the term accident seems entirely appropriate.
If we now have to use some public sector inspired phrase that replaces the perfectly good word "Accident", well it just shows some of them still have too much time on their hands and there is more waste left to be cut. Thankfully Cllr Menlove doesn't seem to have had that memo yet so thankfully remains blissfully free to comment on the 'bleedin obvious'