There have been 68 incidents of bridge strikes across the Irish Rail network in 2016.
Irish Rail bosses have appealed to Irish truck drivers to pay more heed to the height of their vehicles following an increase in the number of bridge strikes in 2016.
DART has seen the largest increase in the number of collisions with 25 taking place this year already; on Thursday last, two separate bridges in the Grand Canal area were hit by two different vehicles within the space of two hours, delaying trains and causing traffic mayhem.
In the same period last year, there had been 12 bridge strikes in the DART area.
Irish Rail say they have improved signage in an attempt to counteract the problem, while truck drivers can avail of a downloadable map that can be accessed by anyone wishing to check bridge heights.
The number of bridge strikes has increased since a low of 72 nationwide in 2012 and while an increase in construction traffic may go some way towards explaining it, Irish Rail says that it is still not acceptable that truck drivers in many instances do not know the height of the vehicle they are driving.
A spokesperson for Iarnród Éireann said: “The basic intelligence and competence of drivers involved in these incidents must now be called into question. We have endeavoured to inform and educate drivers, we have advertised, we have improved our signage, we have seen prosecutions and we have introduced new technologies – the message has to get through.
“It is basic safety for truckers to know the height of their vehicles and the bridges on their routes.”
As well as causing cause significant delays to both rail and road services, Irish Rail regards bridge strikes as the single most likely cause of a serious rail safety incident on the network and have produced a short video to alert road users of the dangers of hitting bridges and the damage that it can cause.
