Truck stuck under Prague metro bridge: what we know about the crash

A truck carrying a drilling rig, travelling along Vídeňská street in Prague at around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, got stuck not under the railway bridge but under the neighbouring bridge that carries a metro spur. According to experts, neither bridge was damaged, and traffic on the street has already been restored. Police are investigating the incident as a traffic accident: the driver ignored a road sign.

Which bridge the truck hit

“We checked the Správa železnic railway bridge that trains run on, and it is not damaged. There have been no restrictions on it from the start. The truck still passed under it normally and got stuck only on part of the bridge that stands right next to the railway one. It carries the access spur of the metro owned by the road company,” said Martin Kavka of Správa železnic. He declined to compare the heights of the bridges above the road: “That is not within my competence.”

According to Prague Deputy Mayor for Transport Jaromír Beránek (Pirates), the photos show that the metro bridge sits lower above the carriageway than the railway one. But in his view, nothing suggests that the signs before the site of the accident were placed incorrectly. “It seems the clearance at the first bridge is slightly higher, but the information about the maximum height is clearly posted. The driver of the oversized load either miscalculated or did not have the correct data,” he said.

Beránek recalled that the metro spur was built at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s to bring the Soviet trains of the time to the Kačerov depot. The structural engineers confirmed that the bridge is in good order. The road company has stopped traffic on the spur, but according to spokesperson Daniel Šabík, this has no effect on metro operations.

The damage has not yet been assessed

“It is too early to assess the damage,” a spokesperson for the road company said. “The structure and the possible extent of damage or the load capacity of the bridge need to be checked, and only that will be the basis for a calculation.” The company will be able to take any steps only once the investigation clearly establishes who is at fault.

Police, according to spokesperson Eva Kropáčová, are for now treating the case as a road accident in which the driver ignored a road sign. The damage caused in the accident will be calculated.

Traffic on Vídeňská street near the exit to the Southern Connection has not been restricted since Friday morning, although, according to TSK, the road surface was damaged when the vehicle was recovered by fire-service tankers and heavy equipment. The Prague Road Administration is inspecting the site with its own technicians, and an accredited laboratory will determine the extent of the damage and the repairs needed. A final damage estimate therefore cannot yet be given, explained TSK spokesperson Barbora Lišková.

For Beránek, the priority was to reopen traffic as soon as possible, and that was achieved. “According to TSK, this is not an emergency, more a local defect like a pothole. In the coming days they will work out how to repair it, and the final repair will most likely be done next weekend,” he added.

The city hall was preparing a new sign

The Prague city hall was preparing changes to the signs on Vídeňská street even before the accident, noted transport expert Roman Budský of the Platforma Vize 0 organisation: “Public city hall documents show that a draft measure on the clearance height on Vídeňská street was already prepared on 21 September. Because of the railway bridge repairs, it provides for adding a B 16 sign with a 4.2-metre limit. The draft was published on 25 September, less than two weeks before the accident.”

It remains to be established how tall the vehicle was, whether it had the necessary permit, and how far in advance the route was checked. “It would be unfair to look for someone to blame before all the circumstances are clear. But possible shortcomings on the side of the transport infrastructure cannot be ruled out automatically either,” added Budský.

Read also: Metro Prague: map and tickets

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz