These bus crashes where they go under a bridge that is too low for their height happen fairly often.
I bet in nearly all cases they are drivers supplied by temp agencies who take routes and diversion they are not supposed to.
Otherwise how could a bus normally fit under the bridge?
In reference to the incident yesterday at Cook Street, Glasgow, posted above, the service had been diverted off its usual route due to road closure for a running race in the city centre, although obviously he wasn’t meant to go
that way. Part of the problem with this specific location - and this has been a problem spot for decades - is that there are two bridges on the same road in close proximity; one is 15’ 3” and the other which the bus hit yesterday is 12’ 6”. There is a road (Salkeld Street) which runs parallel to the railway in between the two bridges, so it’s possible to drive westbound under the higher bridge and turn left before striking the lower one. The driver in this incident may even have breathed a sigh of relief after he successfully cleared the 15‘ 3” bridge before he walloped the 12’ 6” one.
Incidentally, the Cook Street bridges are less than half a mile from their little brothers at West Street. The lower of that pair, at just 10’ 6”, claimed the lives of three children and two adults in September 1994 when it was struck by a double decker carrying a group of girl guides home from a day out in Butlins, Ayr. A further 29 kids were injured, some of them very seriously. The West Street accident also took place on a Sunday and it happened because the driver was unfamiliar with that part of the city, so was following a car driven by one of the parents who had been helping with the outing. The bus, which was 13’ 9” tall, cleared the first bridge but struck the second. The driver of the bus appeared in the Sheriff Court under a charge of dangerous driving but was found not guilty of that by the jury, which was very controversial at the time. He was, however, convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving. A civil case was later brought by one of the bereaved families against the helper who led the bus under the bridge in her car, but it was dismissed. West Street was subsequently closed off at the northern end next to the bridges, preventing it from being used as a through-route. The 1994 smash was a really horrific incident which badly affected those who attended it, a few years ago I worked with someone who was there that day and he told me the whole sorry tale one quiet nightshift. A hard wee Glasgow railwayman who had to turn away from me to hide the tears in his eyes.
