{"id":289111,"date":"2025-07-24T23:16:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/289111\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T23:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T23:16:18","slug":"bus-horror-crash-bridge-to-be-wrapped-in-luminous-vinyl-as-more-than-40-actions-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/289111\/","title":{"rendered":"Bus horror crash bridge to be ‘wrapped in luminous vinyl’ – as ‘more than 40 actions identified’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transport bosses have given an update<\/p>\n

15:50, 24 Jul 2025Updated 17:52, 24 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

Road warning markings have been repainted(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A low bridge will be ‘wrapped in luminous vinyl’ after it was hit by a double-decker bus, leaving three passengers on board seriously injured when the roof was ripped off.<\/p>\n

A total of 17 other casualties were treated at the scene and the bus driver, a man in his 50s, was arrested and later bailed.<\/p>\n

Councillors on the Bee Network committee were told of the development today, Thursday (July 24) as transport bosses revealed ‘more than 40 actions’ have now been identified after the horror crash on Barton Lane in Eccles on Monday. The bridge is an aqueduct for the Bridgewater Canal.<\/p>\n

Salford council teams closed a section of Barton Lane under the bridge on Thursday and repainted ‘keep clear’ markings near Trafford Road, which had previously faded.<\/p>\n

New ‘low bridge’ markings were also painted on the approach to the road, and council workers were also seen measuring up the width of the bridge where a black-and-yellow wooden beam once sat on the Peel Green Road side of the street.<\/p>\n

Electric warning signs have gone up(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

A statement from Vernon Everitt, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester, was read out at the meeting – which also heard the ‘low bridge technology’ on the bus is believed to have been working at the time. It works to alert drivers to approaching low bridge.<\/p>\n

Mr Everitt said: “More than 40 actions have been identified. A number of which have already been done and a number of which are in the process of being done as we speak.”<\/p>\n

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He said that after site visits ‘as of this afternoon’, several ‘short term measures’ have been agreed. Additional signage has been put up, including large electric display signs on the approaches to Barton<\/a> Lane. Trees and foliage have been cut back to make sure signs are visible.<\/p>\n

Mr Everitt said: “TfGM has written to the most senior leaders in each of the bus operators to seek their reassurances about their operating practices including training and procedures to mitigate against bridge strikes.”<\/p>\n

A bus at the scene on Thursday(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

He said ‘low bridge reminder’ notices have been put up at the Trafford<\/a> Centre and at Eccles<\/a> for drivers of the 100 service.<\/p>\n

Mr Everitt said: “Road markings warning of a low bridge and repainting of existing road markings is currently being done. A contractor has also been out to assess and measure the gantry in advance of the bridge being wrapped in a luminous vinyl.”<\/p>\n

That wrapping, he said, would be done on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Timber bridge protection beams will be replaced and signs will be updated to carry both imperial and metric measurements.<\/p>\n

Work was also underway on a possible re-routing of services away from the bridge, councillors were told. An urgent report will be returned to the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham<\/a>, next week.<\/p>\n

The mayor of Salford<\/a>, Paul Dennett, said he wanted reassurance on ‘bridge alert technology’ on double-decker buses and the training that goes with it. Drivers are alerted via GPS data and mapping services to low bridges.<\/p>\n

The bus involved(Image: MEN Media)<\/p>\n

Danny Vaughan, Chief Network Officer at Transport for Greater Manchester, said: “In terms of low bridge technology, we have on board all of our Bee Network buses got that technology now. One thing we are doing is making sure that is working on every single bus on every single route in Greater Manchester.”<\/p>\n

He said training and operational procedures were also being looked at, saying bridge strikes were a national problem.<\/p>\n

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Mr Dennett said a Blue Diamond bus went through the same bridge in April, 2023, ripping off the roof. There was no one on board and it was going back to the depot. He also called for the reinstatement of wooden hanging boards on the bridge that were in place to alert drivers but haven’t been replaced.<\/p>\n

Councillor Phil Burke questioned whether the site was a ‘blind spot’ or a signal black-out spot for the bridge alert technology.<\/p>\n

Barton Lane(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Mr Vaughan said he ‘didn’t believe it was a blind spot’. “We think it was working, but what it doesn’t do is to apply the brakes automatically,” he said. “The system is designed to give a warning so the driver can take action.”<\/p>\n

The Barton Lane incident was not the only Greater Manchester bus bridge strike this week, with a ‘training bus driven by a trainee driver’ hitting a rail bridge on Ten Acres Lane in Newton<\/a> Heath on Tuesday. No passengers were onboard and no one was injured,<\/p>\n

Councillor Josh Charters called for designated training routes for drivers. He said: “A bus should not be going anywhere near a bridge that is low enough to touch it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Vaughan said it was an area being explored with operators.<\/p>\n

“We still have yet to understand exactly what happened with the Metroline, what decision the driver or trainer took,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transport bosses have given an update 15:50, 24 Jul 2025Updated 17:52, 24 Jul 2025 Road warning markings have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,1290,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-289111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-salford","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114910762551697025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}