Irish Rail seeking system to help stop 'incredibly dangerous' collisions at city bridge
Iarnród Éireann are engaging with industry experts with the purpose of developing an over-height vehicle detection system for a Dublin city centre rail bridge.
The structure at Amiens St in Dublin has been the scene of a number of "incredibly dangerous" collisions involving over-height vehicles which Iarnród Éireann said “thankfully did not have a tragic outcome.”
While there has been a drop in the number of bridge collision incidents nationally, the bridge at Amiens St was struck three times in 2019 alone.
Iarnród Éireann said: “The successful supplier will be tasked with providing, installing and commissioning a system, which will assist in diverting over-height vehicles away from the bridge in an effort to avoid collisions.
"The system is intended to operate by triggering a warning to any over-height vehicle approaching the bridge, which will be displayed on a variable message sign (VMS) on the pavement in advance of the bridge and also on new digital advertising screens being installed on the bridge this year, warning the truck to stop.”
The most struck railway bridge on the network was South Lott’s road between Pearse and Grand Canal Dock, which was hit six times. Iarnród Éireann has said however that the Amiens Street bridge is the best option for piloting such a warning system.
The company has also confirmed that there were 69 bridge strike incidents on the rail network last year, 57 of which were “under-bridge“ incidents while 12 were “over-bridge” collisions. This is a reduction of 26 on 2018.
A company spokesperson said: “This reduction is to be welcomed, but the company appeals to all drivers of high vehicles to remain vigilant and plan their route to avoid restricted height bridges.”
The spokesperson added: “The trend has not been so positive when it comes to level crossing incidents however. The number of incidents increased to 95, up from 81 in 2018. The most frequent type of incident was barriers closing on road vehicles that did not cause damage. There were 38 such incidents.”
"The most frequent incident that caused damage was a road vehicle hitting a barrier, there were 18 of these. The level crossing which has had the most incidents was at Sutton in Dublin with 16 incidents followed by Sydney parade, also in Dublin, with 11,” the company added.
Iarnród Éireann has also confirmed that in 2019, a person was convicted of dangerous driving at Castlebar District Court, following an incident at a level crossing in Mayo. There were also four other convictions during the year for road users who failed to close the gates after crossing at a user operated level crossing.
The Iarnród Éireann spokesperson added: “As a railway operator, safety is our number one priority, we are going out to tender for an over-height vehicle detection system to prevent needless collisions at this bridge. We are happy that the incidents of bridge strikes are down, but we appeal to all Drivers to be vigilant, one incident is one to many.
The trend at level crossings is worrying, during last year, we had road users taking all sorts of risks that could have ended in catastrophe. Road users must obey the rules of the road and obey warning signs at level crossings.”
