Railway bridge causing havoc for lorries
One of Wigan's many low railway bridges is playing havoc with some of the world's most advanced satellite navigation technology.
Lorry drivers from across Europe, heading for the Bradley Hall trading estate near Standish, are being led down a dead end by their various Sat Nav systems, which plan a correct route but fail to take into account a low bridge that blocks the way.
At least six lorries a day are being wrongly guided down Bradley Lane – as our test route mapping the most direct journey from Aspull, just off the M61, to the trading estate shows – forcing drivers to reverse and turn in Hutton Street, a small cul-de-sac.
Bradley Lane residents Brian Steer and partner Lynn Swift watched as their front wall was demolished by a Polish trucker as he tried to make just such a turn last week.
Brian, 48, said: "It has just started getting worse and worse because more and more drivers are using Sat Nav.
"Before people would give them proper directions and the proper route in but now people don't ask, they'll just put the address into their Sat Nav."
Although there have been several near misses this is the first time that a lorry driver has caused any damage in the street.
Lynn, whose home is on the corner of Bradley Lane and Hutton Street, said: "He was very shaken up, it was a shame really because it's not the worst thing can happen to you.
"But it has really become a difficulty now because you find yourself watching out for lorries all the time just in case they do knock your wall down.
"The real worry is that next time somebody could be injured."
Click next page for more ...A sign warns drivers travelling along Chorley Road about the bridge, but only when they are within a few hundred yards of the junction with Platt Lane, which turns into Bradley Lane.
But it appears that many drivers are either missing the sign, failing to understand it or have simply become too reliant on their Sat Nav systems.
Lynn said: "There needs to be a change in sign because this village, this road, is not built for articulated lorries and knocking this wall down, well it was going to happen sooner or later."
Products that warn drivers of potential hazards, such as low or narrow bridges, are available on the market, the AA motoring organisation, for example, produces a 'truckers' atlas' that warns drivers about potential pitfalls.
But the data is not programmed into most Sat Nav devices as standard.
A spokesman for the AA said: "It is still the person behind the wheel who is responsible for driving a vehicle, not the Sat Nav, whether they are from Poland or Barnsley, and the driver still has to react to what they see through their windscreen.
"Getting lulled into a false sense of security is one of the down sides of Sat Nav but if it could be made even more clever with all this extra data then the technology would be even better."
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Weather for Wigan
Thursday 02 September 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 20 C
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