By Glen Mullins, managing director of Vue, part of Radius

Glen Mullins, managing director of Vue, part of Radius

By definition, a bridge strike happens when a vehicle, its load or equipment collides with a bridge. Most bridge strikes occur where roads pass under railway bridges.

In peak years, there can be 2,000 bridge strikes a year in Britain. That’s more than five per day, putting lives at risk, costing millions of pounds of damage and causing thousands of hours of train delays.

For Road Safety Week 2022, which begins today (14 November), the numbers are in from National Rail’s annual report detailing ‘road rail interface fatalities’, which include those caused by bridge strikes. The number of bridge strikes between April 2021 and March 2022 totalled 1,832 compared to 1,624 the previous year. Bridge strikes peaked at 2,019 in the financial year 2017/18. but with technology such as the Low Bridge Alerting System (LBAS), developed by Vue, a Radius business, the tide may start to change to tackle bridge strikes.

So why do bridge strikes tend to happen? Research by Network Rail has found that 32% of drivers admitted to setting off whilst not being aware of the height of their vehicle, with 56% not considering low bridges when planning their journey.

Other reasons include drivers having to use different tractor and trailer combinations – one week a driver can drive under a bridge, the next they can’t. This relies on the driver remembering to update the vehicle height when a new trailer is added. Road closures or diversions can also be a factor forcing drivers to drive along unknown routes, which can increase the risk of bridge strikes. Then there’s fatigue – drivers at the end of a long shift can be distracted and their judgement impaired or may not see signage at all. What’s more, if drivers have a lack of confidence in previous solutions used, due to excessive alerts or false positives, they may lean towards ignoring notifications.

The costs can be huge, which is why there needs to be more awareness around this road safety issue. Bridge strike incidents can cause death or serious injury to road and rail users and have a serious impact on the operation of the railway, and road traffic. After every incident the bridge needs to be examined to make sure it’s safe and any debris needs to be cleared. This can cause significant delays to both road and rail users as well as disruption to the affected community.

What can be done to address the issue? Advice given to drivers from Network Rail includes knowing their vehicle’s height and width, knowing their route, obeying traffic signs, checking the height of the cab before leaving etc. But this puts all the onus – and pressure – on drivers and doesn’t allow for human error or take into account the many challenges drivers can face.

In response to this problem, Vue has developed the Low Bridge Alerting System (LBAS) to help fleets tackle bridge strikes, significantly reducing the number of incidents.

One of the main reasons it sets itself apart from other bridge avoidance products is its lack of driver involvement. In fact, no driver input is needed at all.

All the information about the height of the vehicle or trailer is inputted during the installation of the hardware. This means that the solution is not subject to human error; distracted drivers, poor route planning, guessing of vehicle height etc.

As a driver travels to their destination, the technology identifies potential risks based on the direction the vehicle is travelling, as well as the live drive time between a vehicle and the risk. If a bridge or other height restriction, such as railway wires, is lower than the height of the vehicle it is detected and an in-cab alert will be triggered to warn the driver.

The algorithm reduces false positives and prevents excess alerting, and the remote configuration and adjustable setup means that the solution can be tailored to suit exact requirements. The cost-effective solution is the first of its kind, and is suitable for rigids, tractors, and trailers.

To aid its development, the LBAS was successfully trialled with a leading provider of supply chain services, XPO Logistics, which came to VUE because bridge strikes were proving to be a major issue within its fleets.

XPO played an invaluable part in creating the solution, providing insights and suggestions which helped refine the system. They then trialled the finished solution at their Bury St Edmunds depot which was a great success. It is now in the process of being rolled out to over 2000 vehicles.

With the spotlight on road safety this month, could this be a solution to bridge strikes that the industry has been crying out for?