Home delivery vehicles make up a growing proportion of bridge strike incidents and a lack of training and drivers under pressure to complete drops are blamed for the increase.

According to Network Rail, there were 1,532 railway bridge strikes between April 2023 and March 2024, but despite publicity campaigns and threats to driver and operator licences, this number increased to 1,666 between 2024 and 2025.

There are between nine and 12 reported bridge strikes every day in the UK with around 80% involving HGVs.

The traffic commissioners reissued guidance to operators in 2024, underscoring measures to prevent strikes and the issue is often addressed in regulatory proceedings, where licence revocation is possible.

Speaking recently at a training course for operators organised by Beverley Bell Consulting, Rick Wenham, the Metropolitan Police’s former head of the commercial vehicle unit, said the main reasons were drivers not measuring loads, not following a truck-specific sat-nav, or “blatant stupidity”.

But he also said that a reason for the number increasing was that growing awareness about the problem meant incidents were more likely to be reported now as well.

Deputy traffic commissioner Nick Denton said: “Maybe the driver has not been trained; they are driving a 3.5-tonne vehicle, which can be quite high; they’re using a satnav and are in a hurry with multi-drops.  “So all of those issues combine and then the numbers are not dropping.”

Further information:

https://www.commercialmotor.com/legal-news/article/vans-a-growing-problem-in-bridge-strike-incidents