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Ridiculous Accidents

escargot said:
As previously mentioned, I owned a tall camper van which was fun on roads with low bridges.
It also frigh tened horses so I'd stop until they'd gone past, to their riders' great appreciation. :)

Anyway... it had a dashboard plate saying
HEIGHT OF VEHICLE
9' 6"​
whereas the plate on a structure in Caernarfon, North Wales read
HEIGHT OF ARCH
6' 9"
​
This had me muttering 'six foot nine... nine foot six...six foot nine... nine foot six...' as I crawled along; eventually admitting defeat, grinding to a halt and executing a faultless 99-point turn on the narrow mediaeval one-way street.

Locals and tourists watched and cheered. I slunk away and never, ever ignored height signs again. :wink2:
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I was on the phone to a mate of mine who was guiding an artic around Londontown one day, to hear ''Oh bollocks''. He'd come face to face with a low bridge and the only way he could go was to turn down a one-way street (the wrong way) but he couldn't because there were bollards in the way stopping him from being able to swing the trailer round.
A van driver stopped and told him that you can take the bollards out- which he did- enabling him to head on down the one-way.

Unfortunately when he got to the T- junction at the end, he couldn't turn due to all the parked cars, so had to back up the one-way (at least going the correct way this time, albeit in reverse).

Luckily, just at this point, the manager of the site where he was delivering to walked past and said that he'd guide him back and if he'd then give him a lift to the site, he'd show him the route.
Jammy sod.
 
Herr Cloaca said:
I just don't understand how this still happens. GPS trackers have existed for over fifteen years and there's no reason why every bus shouldn't / couldn't be fitted with one. Low bridges must be on at least one database.
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Plus, even before gps there's been road atlases on sale for years for hgv's, that show every low bridge and its height.
If it's your job to drive a high vehicle, then and call me old-fashioned, but I'd say that its paramount that you are aware of this!
 
Blackwall Tunnel was, maybe still is, regularly blocked by overheight vehicles ignoring the myriad of signs. Mind you I'd argue that all the signs ought to be in metric and imperial to avoid confusion.

The worst one I saw was a width restriction put in because of roadworks where the only sign was about 33ft /10m before the restriction by which time most lorries were stuck trying to do U turns or reverse out of the narrowish road.
 
All Network Rail bridges are marked with prominent signage, both on roads leading up to them and on the structures themselves, and the bridges are painted up with stripes.

This was done in 2014.
 
escargot said:
All Network Rail bridges are marked with prominent signage, both on roads leading up to them and on the structures themselves, and the bridges are painted up with stripes.

This was done in 2014.
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Sorry to be a pedant, but only the ones under 16’ 6” / 5.0m are signed - any structure over a road in the UK taller that height doesn’t have to be marked (although occasionally they are if there’s a specific concern). Height markings for structures have been prescribed in the traffic sign regulations for decades, as far back as the 1960s at least.

An important part of the checks carried out after a bridge strike is making sure that any height signs on the bridge or approach roads are in place, accurate and clearly visible to drivers.
 
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Carse said:
Sorry to be a pedant, but only the ones under 16’ 6” / 5.3m are signed - any structure over a road in the UK taller that height doesn’t have to be marked (although occasionally they are if there’s a specific concern). Height markings for structures have been prescribed in the traffic sign regulations for decades, as far back as the 1960s at least.

An important part of the checks carried out after a bridge strike is making sure that any height signs on the bridge or approach roads are in place, accurate and clearly visible to drivers.
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Yup, the world's highest railway bridge probably doesn't need a height sign. :chuckle:
 

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Carse said:
An important part of the checks carried out after a bridge strike is making sure that any height signs on the bridge or approach roads are in place, accurate and clearly visible to drivers.
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I think we've previously mentioned Mill Street Bridge in Crewe, where the north approach is round a steepish bend with a high wall.
It's well-signposted but still gets the odd scrape.
 
Carse said:
On Network Rail infrastructure in the UK there are, on average, three bridge strikes per day. So far today nationally there have been two reported.
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Well, I suppose if you come up with a formula involving thousands of bridges, millions of drivers - some of whom will doubtless be incompetent or stupid - driving even more millions of miles, then the result will average around three strikes per day. Any mathematicians want to give it a punt...?
 
cycleboy2 said:
Well, I suppose if you come up with a formula involving thousands of bridges, millions of drivers - some of whom will doubtless be incompetent or stupid - driving even more millions of miles, then the result will average around three strikes per day. Any mathematicians want to give it a punt...?
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Now, the number of bridges struck by punts is, I'd guess considerably fewer.

I have my coat on....OK.
 
There is a bridge on the A5 that repeatedly gets hit, despite being obviously low, well signposted, and visible from a long way off.
I think it's likely that drivers tooling along there that do hit the bridge are from 'out of town' and just assume that all bridges on main roads like that are high enough to pass under.
Near Hinckley.
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Trevp666 said:
There is a bridge on the A5 that repeatedly gets hit, despite being obviously low, well signposted, and visible from a long way off.
I think it's likely that drivers tooling along there that do hit the bridge are from 'out of town' and just assume that all bridges on main roads like that are high enough to pass under.
Near Hinckley.View attachment 66385
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Hence the 'sacrificial' girder that is separate from the bridge itself;
Hinck.jpg
 
A railway bridge over a narrow lane near our gaff is perfectly high enough and has no height restriction, but the road underneath lies low and would often flood.
It's also set on a blind bend so until traffic lights were put in, drivers would honk their horn and hope for the best. Didn't always work out well and there were often prangs. I've personally known motorcyclists who've been unlucky there.

The traffic lights and a new drainage system seem to have helped a lot.
When we cycle along there though, I still find myself taking that instinctive deep last breath. You never know. :nods:
 

Influencer dies after live-streaming himself drinking bottles of Chinese spirit Baijiu​

The influencer “Sanqiange” (or “Brother Three Thousand”) was found dead just hours after broadcasting himself taking part in a competition with a fellow influencer which involved drinking Baijiu, a Chinese spirit with a typical alcohol content of between 30% to 60%, Shangyou News reported.
One of his friends told the outlet that Sanqiange – identified by his real-life surname of Wang – had taken part in an online challenge known as “PK” against another influencer in the early hours of May 16 and live-streamed the results on his Douyin channel.

“PK” challenges involve one-on-one battles in which influencers compete with each other to win rewards and gifts from viewers, and often involve punishments for the loser – apparently in this case, drinking Baijiu.

“I don’t know how much he had consumed before I tuned in. But in the latter part of the video, I saw him finish three bottles before starting on a fourth,” the friend, identified only as Zhao, told Shangyou News.

“The PK games ended at around 1 a.m. and by 1 p.m., (when his family found him) he was gone,” he added.

In recent years, the country’s booming live-streaming scene has given rise to a multibillion-dollar industry, in which influencers with an entrepreneurial spirit compete to sell their products in real time on social media platforms.
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etc

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Man who hurled metal ball away not prosecuted for fatal accident

The thrower who accidentally killed a man by hurling a metal ball away last year will not be prosecuted. The accident took place in Geldrop at the Highland Games, a traditional Scottish folk game. The public prosecutor ruled that the ball thrower was not to blame.

The 65-year-old victim was in August at the Kasteel Geldrop estate where the event was held. The man was walking behind a metre-high hedge in a flower garden next to the event site when he was hit by the metal ball.

In the Highland Games, athletes throw tree trunks or stones, for example. The accident occurred during the Hammer Throw event. This involves swinging a metal ball on a kind of hammer around its axis and then throwing it.

To investigate how the accident could have happened, many witnesses were spoken to and an expert from Scotland was called in. According to witnesses, the participant had become unbalanced during his throw, causing the bullet to swing off.

"The role of the thrower of the bullet was examined. Nothing shows that he is to blame," the prosecution writes. His case will be dismissed.

The event itself had no permit. No application or notification of the Highland Games was made to the municipality. It is therefore possible that the organisers of the event are to blame. That investigation is still ongoing.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2476583-man-die-metalen-bal-wegslingerde-niet-vervolgd-voor-fataal-ongeluk
 
I expect that the organisers were lacking in their 'risk assessment' (if such a thing exists there - it does here, but also if the event didn't have a permit I expect it wasn't licenced or insured etc etc).
Any use of 'common sense' would surely lead to the organisers realising that hurling hammers around (etc) is dangerous, so measures need to be taken to ensure that the participants are not causing any danger to anyone by placing the throwing circle and the target area well out of the way of any others in the vicinity.
 
At big events there's usually a kind of netting cage with an opening so that the hammer can't be released towards spectators. This seems to have been a small event where safety equipment was lacking.
 
I’m dreading the inevitable “knock-on” effect on Highland Games, when the “If it only saves one life!” and “Think of the children!” brigades get their claws in.

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
I’m dreading the inevitable “knock-on” effect on Highland Games, when the “If it only saves one life!” and “Think of the children!” brigades get their claws in.

maximus otter
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Same goes for caber tossing. It'll save many trees.
 
Herr Cloaca said:
I just don't understand how this still happens. GPS trackers have existed for over fifteen years and there's no reason why every bus shouldn't / couldn't be fitted with one. Low bridges must be on at least one database.
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Sat Nav still directs artics up our road, which further up has an impassable river bridge for large vehicles - not because of height, but because of the narrow 90 degree turn between houses and stone walls. There is nowhere close by to turn round, and every time it happens it causes delays and annoyance. Even the sign saying unsuitable for long vehicles at the start of the road does not deter them, because the sat nav has to be right, doesn't it?

Friends of mine who live further up the valley on a parallel track (which is a dead end) have even had 36 tonners turn up there insisting the sat nav says there is a way through. I wouldn't go up the track in anything less than a Land Rover. Which is what they drive.

Why can't it be fixed, you ask? Well computer systems are written and updated by humans. (As is AI, but that is a different discussion.)
 
Cochise said:
Why can't it be fixed, you ask? Well computer systems are written and updated by humans. (As is AI, but that is a different discussion.)
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It would need someone to find out who the GPS mapmakers are and contact them about it.
A difficult task, because there are several.
 
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