Northern Ireland

Fourth lorry in a year hits Banbridge bridge

W<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: sans-serif, Arial, Verdana, &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;; ">hat appeared to be&nbsp;a refrigerated transport lorry, became jammed in the underpass&nbsp;in Banbridge. Picture courtesy of Transport Consulting Company&nbsp;</span>
What appeared to be a refrigerated transport lorry, became jammed in the underpass in Banbridge. Picture courtesy of Transport Consulting C What appeared to be a refrigerated transport lorry, became jammed in the underpass in Banbridge. Picture courtesy of Transport Consulting Company 

A fourth lorry has struck The Cut, a bridge in in Co Down. in the space of a year.

On Tuesday night, what appeared to be a refrigerated transport lorry, became jammed in the underpass in Banbridge.

A lorry also hit the same bridge in May and two within two days in November.

In one incident, the driver apparently did not realise what had happened on Sunday and drove for another 10 miles.

Images of Tuesday night’s crash showed the lorry wedged under the bridge.

Damage looked to have been caused to the top of the vehicle.

The Cut was reputedly one of the first fly-overs in Europe when it was built by famous Irish road and rail engineer William Dargan in 1834.

And the latest incident may hasten calls for the route to be restricted to cars only, thus taking commercial vehicles away from the town altogether.

The Cut, which is straddled by Downshire Bridge (sometimes also referred to as Jingler's Bridge after a lady called '˜The Lurgan Jingler' who kept an apple stall there in the 1800s), was carved through the centre of Banbridge to give easier passage to horse and carts making the journey from Belfast to Dublin.

It was an engineering marvel in its day, completed at an expense, including the erection of the viaduct and the formation of its approaches, of £19,000 – a phenomenal sum at the time.

Indeed The Cut and its approaches provide a feature that makes Banbridge like no other town in Ireland.

But with the advent of modern transport, drivers of high-sided vehicles have been caught out down the years.

Gary McDonald, business editor of Irish News said: "one of my first stories as a trainee journalist in the Banbridge Chronicle in the late 1970s was to report on how the entire top deck of a double decker bus was literally sliced off, injuring a number of people including children. Thankfully there were no fatalities.

"On another occasion a lorry got completely stuck under the bridge, and it took engineers the best part of a day to dislodge it (letting the tyres down proved the ultimate solution).

"Indeed the Chronicle office at that time overlooked The Cut, and crashes into the bridge were an every three- or four-month occurrence, with damage invariably caused to the lorries as well as the drivers' ego."

Such is the sturdy brick structure of the bridge that it has always remained standing. But how many more knocks can The Cut take?