Nottingham's tram operator is looking at using more specialist equipment to recover cars from the tracks after one vehicle recently ended up with all four wheels wedged into concrete. An incident on November 15 saw a car driving onto tram tracks on the Lenton Lane Bridge, with the vehicle ending up hundreds of metres along the track.
The car then became completely stranded and recovery was delayed because specialist equipment was needed, given how far the car had gone. Trevor Stocker, the Head of Operations at NET, addressed the problem at a meeting of the Greater Nottingham Light Rapid Transit Advisory Committee on Tuesday (December 13).
He said: "We're looking at what specialist equipment might be available to recover [vehicles] in a safe way but with this recent one, the car had got all four wheels wedged into the concrete so it was quite difficult because it couldn't be just pushed to one side. There are a few things that are happening in that area.
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"I think we see the sun reflecting off the road surface and that could be distracting some drivers. We're only talking about one or two occurrences in that area this year, that being said we're still looking with the road safety team at the moment to change some of the road markings there."
NET says it is planning to complete the improvements at Lenton Lane "over the winter period." Roger Bacon, from TravelWatch East Midlands, asked Mr Stocker about what was causing cars to go onto the tracks.
He said: "Is there any kind of analysis on whether they are joyriders, is it primarily at night when it's probably a bit more difficult to see, or are they just idiots following their sat-navs?
Trevor Stocker replied: "We've done quite a bit of analysis on that and actually when the new lines opened we saw bridge incursions at different places on the network at Nottingham station, QMC, Lenton Lane. We've been put in a variety of things so we've got new road markings, new signage, and that's worked in all of the locations other than Lenton Lane.
"The people that are doing this don't tend to be joyriders, although we have had an occasion where a vehicle may have been chased by the police. But it's generally people getting disorientated and lost and getting their vehicle stranded, which is making it quite difficult to remove them."
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