Bridge policy questioned after lorry driver's death

A lorry driver was blown off the Foyle Bridge in Derry in high winds which would have shut all comparable bridges in the United Kingdom to high-sided vehicles, an inquest heard today.

A lorry driver was blown off the Foyle Bridge in Derry in high winds which would have shut all comparable bridges in the United Kingdom to high-sided vehicles, an inquest heard today.

Peter McGuinness, 37, from Aghagallon, near Lurgan, Co Armagh, died when his articulated lorry crashed off the bridge and plunged 100ft to the mudflats below in January last year.

Winds were gusting to more than 70mph at the time of the accident, but because the average wind speed had not been recorded topping 50mph, the Road Service did not shut the bridge, the inquest in Derry heard.

The dead man’s family called for a rethink of policy on hearing things were handled differently by the authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.

A report into the accident by Hyder Consultants, commissioned by the Road Service, said they had not been at fault in keeping the bridge open and had been monitoring the wind speeds after a gale warning was issued by the Met office.

However civil engineer Phillip Tindall, from Hyder, revealed there was a 20-minute delay in recording wind speeds from the bridge and the average wind had been close to 50mph some time before the accident.

And under questioning from barrister Kevin Magill, representing the family of the dead man, he agreed Mr McGuinness would have not been allowed to cross similar bridges in the UK under the same weather conditions.

He said it was the only bridge in the UK and the North that did not have some sort of restriction short of closure.

The Humber Bridge, the Forth Road Bridge and the Severn Old Bridge would all have been closed to high-sided vehicles if weather conditions had been such as those around the Foyle Bridge.

“It is the only bridge in the UK and the North that doesn’t implement lesser restrictions than closure in adverse weather,” stated Mr Magill. Mr Tindall agreed.

But he refused to be drawn when asked by the lawyer if he agreed there was an “inadequate system” for checking the weather at the Foyle Bridge.

“You can’t just take wind speeds in isolation because conditions differ from one bridge to another,” said Mr Tindall.

Three men travelling across the bridge behind Mr McGuinness gave dramatic accounts of his fight to keep the vehicle on the bridge and of the moment he plunged to his death.

They had been working with a high crane at a shopping centre a mile-and-a-half from the bridge, but had been ordered to stop by their boss because the increasing wind speed made it too dangerous.

Nevin McClarnon said as they crossed the bridge they noticed the top of the lorry’s trailer ahead of him “rocking from side to side”.

He said: “We continued to follow it and it continued to sway from side to side.”

The lorry pulled into the outside lane to pass some roadworks and as it swung back into the inner lane the rear of the trailer lifted off the ground a couple of times, he said.

“The trailer seemed to be leaning against the crash barrier and then it went over. Once the wind caught the trailer it seemed to be controlling the cab and not the other way round,” he said.

Fellow worker Michael McNabb, who had years of experience driving articulated lorries, added: “Almost as soon as the lorry went onto the bridge it started to be pushed by the wind.

“I noticed the strange way it was being moved by the wind. I could see the driver trying to correct it then the steering wheels lifted and it went over the side.”

Co-worker Jim McOscar said he remembered Mr McNabb shouting as they followed the lorry: “Look at the trailer, look at the trailer.”

He added: “The whole time it seemed to be moving to the nearside of the road as if being pushed by the wind and the driver seemed to be fighting it.”

After the lorry toppled over the barriers at the apex of the bridge the men raised the alarm and Mr McOscar made his way down to the mudflats to see if the driver had survived.

The lorry was lying upside down in the mud and the driver was hanging upside down. There was blood trickling from his mouth, and he appeared to be dead.

Coroner Suzanne Anderson recorded that Mr McGuinness suffered a rapid death from multiple injuries when his unladen, curtain-sided lorry was pushed off the bridge by high winds just as the Road Service was considering closing it to traffic.

She described the lorry driver’s death as “a tragic accident”.

After the inquest the dead man’s brothers, Jim and Mark, called for lessons to be learnt from the accident so no-one else suffered a similar fate.

Speaking on their behalf, solicitor Diarmuid McKeown called for a review by the Road Service into its policy for closing the bridge.

He said: “They are somewhat disappointed that every other bridge in the UK would have prevented Peter crossing in a high-sided vehicle in the conditions of that day.”

He said they wanted the Road Service to judge safety on the speed of gusting wind, not the mean average speed.

“Average speeds didn’t exceed 50mph, but wind was gusting to 70mph for continuous periods.”

He said it “defies belief” decisions were made on average speed not gusting winds as on other bridges in the UK.

Since the accident – the only one of its kind since the bridge opened more than a decade ago – a new safety system has been set up at the bridge.

This summer the road service installed a warning system to alert motorists to high winds through a series of message signs.

The signs warn drivers of the winds on the bridge and advise them of alternative routes.

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