I was wondering if anyone out there has any experience with or knowledge of large vehicle Bridge Strikes? My husband is currently completing his final project for his Product Design Masters and has decided to look at Bridge Strikes as his project. He has a total of 12 weeks to complete the project and at present he is really keen to talk to professionals within the transport / rail / logistics sector with knowledge or experience of bridge strikes. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Ally

As he is doing an academic project, I recommend him to do some search on Google Scholar http://scholar.google.co.uk/

Just to understand what he is interested in is it ;- 1) Why do vehicles hit bridges – ie a) why are routes not planned better b) vehicle design issues that lead to the incident. 2) Road layout / alterations that cause the problem ie someone resurfaces the road and does not change the height warning on a bridge. 3) The effects on the bridge following collision and the measures necessary to repair or certify it ok following an incident. 4) How you might design the bridge to prevent a strike (best of luck with that) I was once made aware of a bridge strike where a tipper lorry was defective and the tipper part started to rise slowly while going down the road. They made it under the first two bridges, but not the third. Chris

Chris, there may be adequate controls in place, but there have been reports of drivers taking different routes and colliding with bridges. One example is that the bus driver is used to a single decker bus, then drives a double decker and hits a bridge. Taking short cuts without knowing the height of any bridges on route is another cause. Not having driven that type of vehicle before and concentrating on the driving and not heights etc. The other point to consider is the human factor element, perhaps the driver misjudged the height of the bridge or his vehicle. just a few points to consider.

Ally I have sent you a PM with my contact details. Ray