Bridge Damage - Merseyrail - Ormskirk line

[John Luxton]

A car collied with the parapet of the Prescot Road over bridge near Aughton early this morning. It was a good job this happened during the early hours as the outcome could have been quite nasty.

Driver ploughs car into railway bridge as debris scattered 40ft below on track​

Train services have been cancelled as a car crashed into a bridge above the train tracks
A car has crashed into a railway bridge in Aughton.

Debris from the car and the structure can be seen scattered below on the train tracks after the incident which happened at around 2.15am today, Thursday, December 28. Police have confirmed that a red Seat Ibiza smashed into the bridge, causing severe damage.

Officers revealed that no injuries have been reported. Prescot Road remains closed while a clean up operation takes place. Police have blocked access from the junction of Moss Delph Lane in both directions.

Driver ploughs into railway bridge as debris scattered 40ft below

Train services have been cancelled as a car crashed into a bridge above the train tracks

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk

 

[D6130]

What are 'train tracks'? I thought they were known in this country as 'the railway'!

 

[357]

What are 'train tracks'? I thought they were known in this country as 'the railway'!

How about we start calling them "railway roads" and train stations "road stops"?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Looks like the car has just knocked the parapet off. I can't imagine it taking too long to put it back and maybe replace a stone or two if any were destroyed.

Will still be open to pedestrians as there's a separate pedestrian bridge (from which one of the photos was taken).

 

[D6130]

How about we start calling them "railway roads" and train stations "road stops"?

Sorry....me mam wor an Inglish teechuh!

 

[John Luxton]

What are 'train tracks'? I thought they were known in this country as 'the railway'!

Well it is Reach plc who wrote the story - Liverpool Echo and all of their regional rags are just the same!

 

[AndrewE]

How about we start calling them "railway roads" and train stations "road stops"?

I dislike the way that the use of "train stations" has become widespread (but can see that it is a) american usage spreading and b) not inconsistent with bus stations,) so "train tracks" doesn't grate particularly

Looks like the car has just knocked the parapet off. I can't imagine it taking too long to put it back and maybe replace a stone or two if any were destroyed.

Will still be open to pedestrians as there's a separate pedestrian bridge (from which one of the photos was taken).

It is a good job no trains were running, they are pretty big blocks of stone. Wonder whether it was a big heavy car (SUV?) They can obviously do far more damage than an older and lighter car.

 

[swt_passenger]

Is this another case of the fairly substantial “Kee Clamp” railings causing a number of parapet blocks to pull each other off the foundation over a significant length, a sort of domino effect? Other examples at Plessey recently, or at Nine Elms a while ago?

I wonder if there’s another way of designing that type of handrail to prevent this, perhaps some sort of breakaway connector at intervals along the length.

However, the common feature of most of these types of incident is how little resistance there is to removal of the blocks. They’re usually just sitting on a mortar bed that may have little or no adhesion. Why hasn’t such a bridge come up for assesment of its lack of any real containment? Was that only done nationally on certain grades of roads?

 

[racyrich]

Looks like another case of a long section of parapet being pulled down by the handrail.

Ooops. Swt_passenger beat me to it

 

[Bletchleyite]

However, the common feature of most of these types of incident is how little resistance there is to removal of the blocks. They’re usually just sitting on a mortar bed that may have little or no adhesion. Why hasn’t such a bridge come up for assesment of its lack of any real containment? Was that only done nationally on certain grades of roads?

It's a good question particularly as said bridge is on a curve so colliding with it is more likely than most of them. It's been there for years, probably original, so would have been built when the only traffic was horse drawn.

(I'm very familiar with it, used to walk to school across the separate pedestrian bridge!)

Looks like it's unsurprisingly happened before, looking at Google Streetview it has two types of railings, with the place where it was hit (again) having relatively new ones:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

 

[MP33]

Our local paper is part of Reach group. They reprint press releases word for word.

In their comments section. I suggested that the Police write, 20 cars were stopped in Letsby Avenue and see if the paper prints it.

 

[randyrippley]

Looks like there's an underlying problem in that bridge of rotten masonry. Those blocks should not have come apart that easily, and it looks like the parapet had little or no mortar holding it in place.