Drivers with no heads for heights
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HEIGHT judgment tests in the CM Lorry Driver of the Year Competition have shown that many drivers who can estimate width and length to fine limits are hopelessly adrift when required to judge headroom. This was once strikingly (literally) demonstrated at South Ruislip by a competitor who strayed from the prescribed route.
Far more serious was the recent accident in which six people died when the upper deck of a bus was sliced off by a low bridge in Cwnmbran, South Wales. This prompted a Daily Mail reader to draw attention to a system used in Southern Spain to warn drivers of the bridge heights.
Apart from the usual warning signs, thin metal foil strips are suspended from a gantry at the safe clearance height of the bridge. If they are struck the driver should hear the impact. What might happen to them in Britain's fierce winds was not explained.