A LORRY was left damaged after it crashed into a railway bridge in Dorset.

Police were called to the incident in Bourne Valley Road in Poole at 11am on Friday (October 30).

Officers attended and closed the road for around an hour while the vehicle was recovered.

A Dorset Police spokesperson said: “We were called at around 11am on Friday 30 October 2020 to a report of a collision involving a lorry and a bridge on Bourne Valley Road in Poole.”

The spokesperson said there are no reports of any injuries.

A spokesman for the van owner, Curvin Transport, said the vehicle was being driven by an agency driver not directly employed by them.

Following the incident, Network Rail urged drivers to “know the size and height of their vehicles” and said bridge strikes of this nature are “entirely avoidable”.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “At just after 11am this morning a low railway bridge was hit by a lorry on Bourne Valley Road in Poole. Trains were placed under a temporary speed limit when our inspection of the bridge found no structural damage had been caused. As bridge strikes like this are entirely avoidable and cause delays for rail passengers, we advise drivers to always know the size and height of their vehicles.”

According to a postman in the area, high roof vans often get stuck under the railway bridge.

He said: “It is quite dangerous. I have seen a couple of vans get stuck under that bridge in the past.

“A lot of people get angry about it because there is very little passing space under the bridge and along Bourne Valley Road leading to it as there is permit parking on it. When things like this happen, it causes hold ups as it is a popular route for people getting to Poole. They should really make it a single-track road under the bridge like the other tunnel under the other railway line just further up from it.”