Council admits its poor signage caused bridge crash

Flintshire County Council has conceded that it has responsibility for the incorrect road sign that is thought to have caused a crash last month at Penyffordd, but admits it is yet to do anything about it.

Last week commercialmotor.com reported that a Pelowski Transport Spedycja Actros and its trailer had become wedged under the rail bridge on the A5104 Pontblyddyn Road (pictured).

This saw the driver issued with a £100 graduated fixed penalty notice for careless driving.

However, after North Wales Police tweeted pictures of the incident along with, “lorry drivers – please read the signage!”, a commercialmotor.com reader got in touch to point out that the signage is incorrect.

The bridge sign states that it is 4.1m high, or 13ft in imperial. However, 13ft converted to metres is 3.96m. With Poland-registered Pelowski Transport Spedycja likely to have been running at a maximum 4m trailer height to comply with European restrictions, the driver would have thought he was OK based on the information on the sign.

Steve Jones, chief officer of streetscene and transportation at Flintshire County Council, said: “Any irregularities with the signage of the height restriction order will be investigated.”

A spokesman for North Wales Police told commercialmotor.com: “Police will liaise with the council highways department as part of the investigation and this will be considered when deciding how the matter is ultimately dealt with. The signage issue will obviously be looked into.”

As to whether the issue is a national one, a former police officer, who did not wish to be named, told commercialmotor.com: “Having been a police traffic officer for many years and a transport consultant in retirement I am able to say that this issue is not uncommon.

“The situation is further complicated by the lack of surveying after carriageway resurfacing. In my experience it is not unknown for resurfacing contractors to remove less than the specified depth of material to reduce the cost of disposal and reinstate the specified depth of material which reduces the clearance height.”

• If you spot faulty signage etc near you we’d love to hear via chris.druce@roadtransport.com.

• This story originally appeared in the 2 June issue. Why not subscribe and get 12 issues for just £12?

Photo by Richard Williams