A LORRY crashed into a railway bridge and toppled over this morning, causing fears about the structure's integrity.

Firefighters, police and ambulance are at Greatbridge Road at the railway bridge where the lorry has collided with the side wall and is lying precariously on one side.

Roads around the area were blocked off including Duttons Road at the junction with Malmesbury Road.

Police reported concerns about the bridge structure following the collision.

Recovery crews manoeuvred to get behind the vehicle, which had tipped debris onto nearby waste land close to the river which runs under the road.

Rail passengers were affected in an operation to retrieve a stricken lorry, with services passing slowly over the bridge or even being cancelled altogether.

Police stopped train services at 11.30am to allow the refuse vehicle to be removed safely then the bridge was inspected for damage.

Engineers from Network Rail were on site assessing the bridge.

Daily Echo:

PC Brendan Moseley, officer in the case from Totton Roads policing unit said there was concern about the safety of the railway bridge structure and trains were told to take precautions when using it, travelling at 10 miles an hour.

However, from talking to Network Rail, PC Moseley said there did not appear to be any new damage to the railway bridge.

He said officers were called to the incident where a waste vehicle had got trapped under the bridge at 9.15am.

The driver, a man in his 30s from the Southampton area, was uninjured and released by paramedics at the scene.

Daily Echo:

PC Moseley said the lorry had been recently loaded, but would not speculate on where it had come from.

He added: "The lorry's come down the road under a bridge with a height restriction and the lorry's clearly too high for the bridge so it's stuck the defence the railway's actually put in place to protect the bridge, that's why it's in the position it's in now.

"It pushed the lorry over prior to it getting under the bridge.

"It's carrying non hazardous waste.

 

"The company involved once the vehicle's recovered is going to clear up all the waste.
"the driver is uninjured.  He will be spoken to by police in relation to what's happened."

The waste truck was been successfully moved away from the bridge by 2pm.

Police said Network Rail had told him that the bridge was structurally sound and said trains were now flowing normally and there had been minimal disruption.

He said while they had timed manoeuvring of the vehicle to coincide with gaps in trains coming through at a slow pace.

Daily Echo:

Due to the imbalance in the vehicle they had to remove some of the waste and because the chassis of the vehicle was damaged they had to transfer the waste bin to a different lorry.

Most of the roads have re-opened apart from Greatbridge Road from the roundabout with Duttons Lane and just before Budds Lane.