Cement Mixer falls on train

[srw]

The insurance claim form will look interesting, especially the diagram of the accident!

Fairly cheap really - low millions at most. Compare that with Selby (reportedly £35m or so) - and there's apparently been one in Germany recently for about the same.

My prediction is that the department of transport will insist that at great expense every single bridge in the country is inspected and a large number of them upgraded - at the expense of rail passengers. Compare that with what would have happened if no train had been involved and it had just been a road incident: absolutely nothing. We have a very skewed appetite for risk in this country when it comes to transport.

 

[Arch]

I'd be more interested in what caused this accident.

Looking at the bridge on the telly, it's dead straight. So I guess there are several reasons why a lorry might deviate from the straight line (I'm asuming it came of on it's nearside, and didn't cross the whole road?)

Driver swerved to avoid something - esp an oncoming vehicle over the middle line (overtaking a cyclist perhaps?)

Driver was not concentrating, drifted, and then suddenly over compensated.

Driver had seizure/heart attack of some kind.

Something went wrong with the lorry - blown tyre etc.

 

[Bird Brain]

No,I know the bridge from below Oxshott Station,we are all making assumptions and I have something here I could say but would be very unfair on the lorry driver,so I won't say it but what will come out in the inquiry?

 

[661-Pete]

This bridge, over the main London Brighton line near Haywards Heath, was upgraded at considerable expense a few years ago, ostensibly because a certain number of suicides had occurred (until recently it was a fairly secluded spot with far fewer houses nearby). The parapet used to be only half its present height. They closed the whole road, even to cyclists and peds., whilst the work was being done: a considerable nuisance since it's our best cycling route to Haywards Heath. I suppose, if a bridge passes a certain 'threshold' for number of 'incidents', it gets done. I hardly imagine that every bridge in the country will suddenly get a 'visit'.

It is a little worrying that cement trucks appear to have a bad accident record - witness the number of cyclist fatalities involving these vehicles. I have expressed concern before, whether the regime that governs the readymix trade plays any part in this - whether drivers are pressured into taking risks to achieve a prompt delivery? But this is of course speculative - for now.

 

[sheddy]

Nice summary today by Freewheeler on the blameless reporting of the mixer crash - http://crapwalthamforest.blogspot.com/