ALMOST four years to the date, a Berrys coach became stuck following a bridge strike by Taunton's Station Road.

The vehicle hit the underside of the bridge on Station Road outside the train station after 8.30am on a Thursday morning.

Staff from the Norton Fitzwarren-based travel firm, along with British Transport Police, and staff from First Travel were on the site on the day.

The bridge strike happened as the driver thought they could make it under the rail bridge.

Bridge strikes seem inexplicable and inexcusable, yet they keep happening.

Although numbers are down a little since the turn of the century, and have been declining further over the past few years, there were still over 1,600 incidents in 2020/2021.

That’s around one for every 10,000 vehicle miles driven.

There are ways to avoid bridge strikes, for example, drivers can:

  • Check the vehicle's height is displayed in the cab before starting a journey.
  • Be aware of the height of low bridges.
  • Avoid shortcuts that could lead to low bridges.

A False soffit can help prevent bridge strikes.

These are flaps that extend down from the underside of the bridge to match the lowest clearance.

Police had closed off a stretch of Taunton's Station Road on the day to remove the coach.

Station Road was closed off for "several hours" as the staff tried to techniques to remove the coach.

This included staff members letting down the coach's tyres to see if they could move the double decker coach.

Scott Berry, of Berry Coaches, spoke at the time of the incident: "There were no passengers on board at the time of the incident.

"We have been cooperating with the railway authorities and will conduct a full investigation into the incident ourselves.

"My understanding is that it has been removed from under the bridge.

"No-one was injured."