“It scared the life out of me… they are not reading the signs at all”
The lorry starts to reverse back from the bridge on Barton Lane(Image: Louise Bell)
Bright yellow signs have been installed since three people were seriously hurt after a bus smashed into a Salford bridge last week.
But that didn’t stop another tall vehicle being driven towards the Bridgewater Canal aqueduct on Barton Lane, in Eccles, on Monday (July 28).
Authorities installed new warning signs in the days following last Monday’s incident, which involved at least the fourth double-decker bus hitting the structure since June 2020.
Residents told the Manchester Evening News other vehicles, including lorries, had also crashed into the low bridge over the years.
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Despite the new warning signs and the high-profile coverage of a crash which saw 20 people injured in total last week, another driver came perilously close to striking the bridge again yesterday.
Truck has near miss at Salford bridge days after bus crash
Louise Bell, 45, was driving the car behind the lorry when it suddenly began to reverse from the bridge. She asked her 18-year-old daughter to start recording the ordeal.
“He only realised what he had done as he tried to push the front of his cab under the bridge,” Louise told the Manchester Evening News.
“Then he tried to go in reverse. There were cars behind me having to do three-point-turns everywhere but they had nowhere to go.”
The lorry making its way backwards from the bridge(Image: Louise Bell)
Louise says the road was busy with ‘horrendous’ levels of traffic as she travelled from the Trafford Centre at around 2.40pm yesterday.
“It scared the life out of me,” said Louise. “I have a convertible with a soft top. If he had reversed over me I wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“He didn’t get out of the cab to say what he was doing, he was just pushing me into traffic because of his mistake.”
Since last Monday’s collision, ‘LOW BRIDGE’ has been painted on the road, while the barrier with hanging chains which serves as the first warning sign was wrapped in luminous yellow and prominent signs were also placed on the bridge itself.
The new signs installed last week(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Louise, who works in Eccles but now lives in Bolton, previously lived close to the bridge for 20 years and says she knows the road ‘inside-out’.
She says residents are still fearful about future collisions and believes the the barrier with chains should be lowered to the same height as the bridge – although she feels driver error played a key part in yesterday’s mishap.
“It just shows they are still going to do it,” added Louise. “They are not reading the signs at all.”
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“It’s an accident waiting to happen, unless they do something more dramatic than what they have done.”
A Salford council spokesperson said: “A range of additional warning signs have been implemented on Barton Lane in Eccles in collaboration with our partners at GMP and TfGM, to enhance signage and improve warning systems to help prevent future accidents and to alert drivers to approaching a low bridge.”