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The Welney Website

RTA at Suspension Bridge, 8th Oct 2010

page created 9th Oct 2010, amended/updated Thursday, 14 October 2010
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RTA = Road Traffic Accident
































































































































Acknowledgements.
text and photos © Peter Cox.
A Welney Website exclusive.
yet another vehicle crashes into the barriers at the Suspension Bridge bend
Luckily no-one was injured, although the driver was badly shaken.
lorry on side 1
The accident happened about 2.00pm at the bend that the designers of the 1996 bridge said could not be straightened out any more than they had planned, despite comments from parishioners that it would be a potential hazard.
lorry on side 2
There have been scores of crashes here since the new bridge was opened.
Below, it could have been much worse if the trailer had rolled a little more.
lorry on side 3
The A1101 was closed from about 3.30pm to about 9pm to enable recovery. The truck was carrying 30,000 empty glass jars on 52 pallets. It was too dangerous to attempt to offload onto another vehicle before recovery and inevitably some spilled out when the trailer was lifted by the two 60-ton lorry-mounted cranes from Peter & David Cosby near Boston. Welbournes recovery from Wisbech also attended.
Below, next morning, lots of rubbish including broken glass, completely blocking the lane that serves the row of houses.
rubbish 1

rubbish 1
I don't know when the rubbish was cleared but it was gone by Tuesday morning.

On the approach to the bridge from Welney there are the standard warning signs (below) which the authorities presumably consider sufficient.
warning signs on approach
However it is apparent that some drivers either do not notice, or do not take any notice of, the signs - or maybe the signs just do not convey that a potentially dangerous hidden sharp bend is just beyond.

We should not pre-judge the cause of this particular accident, but speed will almost certainly have played a part. Whatever the reasons, surely the number of crashes here indicates that something more effective is needed. Maybe a flashing warning triggered by traffic?

There is more about the area and bridge alignment on our Suspension Bridge page.
Related pages on this website
Suspension Bridge history & bridges
 
 
Related External websites
 
 
 
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