UKMA warns of dangers posed by imperial signs

16 July 2008

Road and rail-users are at risk because government guidance fails to recognise that foreign hauliers can’t understand many warning signs on low bridges, the UK Metric Association has warned.

According to UKMA, the new chapter of the Traffic signs manual, about to be released by the Department for Transport, will do little to improve road safety because it fails to make metric height and width restriction signs compulsory.

It cites the example of a Slovenian driver who recently crashed his lorry into a low bridge near Cannock in Staffordshire on the West Coast Main Line, just weeks after a Hungarian lorry hit the same bridge. Although the low clearance is signposted, the signs show only imperial unit, which most foreign drivers do not understand.

UKMA chairman, Robin Paice, said: ‘Britain is the only European country to still use imperial, so it is hardly surprising that most foreign hauliers do not understand these old units.

‘The DfT’s opposition to signs in metres is extraordinary when the cost of a bridge strike can run into tens of thousands of pounds, and that’s just the financial cost. ‘With bridge strikes doubling to 2,000 a year in the past decade, these accidents are an obvious safety concern too,’ he said.

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UKMA warns of dangers posed by imperial signs

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