Accident
On 25 October 1960, there was thick fog and a strong tide; two barges carrying petroleum (the Arkendale H and the Wastdale H) overshot Sharpness Dock, were carried upstream and collided with one of the columns of the bridge. Two spans of the 22-span steel and cast iron bridge collapsed. Part of the structure hit the barges, setting fire to them. Five people died in the incident. In February 1961 a further span collapsed.
The Western Region of British Railways planned to reconstruct the bridge but after further damage to the bridge in 1961, it considered the bridge to be damaged beyond economic repair. Following the accident, schoolchildren who had used the bridge daily had to be taken to school on a 40-mile detour via Gloucester.
Read more about this topic: Severn Railway Bridge
Famous quotes containing the word accident:
“A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations.”
—Paul Valéry (1871–1945)
“We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)