High sided vehicle-warnings!

robsail
robsail Forum Participant Posts: 1,441
1000 Comments
edited March 2017 in General Chat #1

Ignore warnings about bridge closed to high sided vehicles at your peril. A lorry driver did and his lorry was blown over resulting in the forth road bridge being closed. He has been handed a £2000 fine, his licence has been taken away and will have to retake his tests after 2years.

Comments

  • NIMROD
    NIMROD Forum Participant Posts: 103
    edited March 2017 #2

    Another HGV driver has been charged with a similar offence by ignoring yesterdays high wind ban on high sided vehicles and having his outfit toppled by yesterdays gale on the Forth Road bridge.

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited March 2017 #3

    One was also done on one of the Seven crossing

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,192 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2017 #4

    If it's windy I'd rather not be driving in the motorhome and hopefully if it was bad enough for this sort of warning I'd have found somewhere to tuck up.

    Out of interest does anyone know what constitutes a high sidded vehicle? Is it defined anywhere? 

  • NIMROD
    NIMROD Forum Participant Posts: 103
    edited March 2017 #5

    On Tay road bridge it is anything higher than a small removal van such as a transit often used as a " man and van" hire. Before automatic barriers installed bridge staff often turned them back. Single decker buses ok presumably because of weight and low centre of gravity of engine and fuel tank.. 

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,302 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2017 #6

    I am with Bakers on this one, we try and plan round severe wind events, perhaps delaying or bringing travel forward. Whilst I realise this is not as easy for someone doing a job of work, to put others lives at risk by ignoring a bridge closed warning is totally irresponsible, and the punishment was IMO appropriate.

    It would be interesting to know what the insurance companies take would be on any damage to the vehicle, in such curcumstances.

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,668 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2017 #7

    Not to mention the cost of recovery, possible damage to crash barriers, and huge inconvenience to other drivers!

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,668 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2017 #8

    Trying to remember......presumably there are no height barriers for these circumstances on the Forth bridge?

    Sounds like time Nicola organised some!

    I commuted to work over the bridge, by car and motorcycle, for almost 5 years, cannot remember encountering such frequent high winds back in the 70s as we seem to get now.

  • woodlanewanderers
    woodlanewanderers Forum Participant Posts: 28
    First Comment
    edited March 2017 #9

    On the Cleddau Bridge linking north and south Pembrokeshire high sided is above 1.9 metres.

  • Bakers2
    Bakers2 Forum Participant Posts: 8,192 ✭✭✭
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    edited March 2017 #10

    Thank you for replying. I'm useless at putting things like this in context. I'll have to go measure the height of our car 😂😂.  About a transit type van, as a guesstimate?

  • Toro
    Toro Forum Participant Posts: 48
    edited March 2017 #11

    I have a limited sympathy for today's HGV drivers, as their employers are pressuring them to arrive on a schedule as a lot of customers give them timed delivery arrival slots, and if they fail to do so then the customer can reject the delivery, or if picking up a load, give it to a rival haulier. Probably the driver going over the Forth bridge did so because for him to divert via the Kincardine bridge would have made him late for his appointed slot.  However the law does make the driver responsible for virtually all aspects, be it the vehicle or otherwise.  

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