High sided vehicle-warnings!

Another HGV driver has been charged with a similar offence by ignoring yesterdays high wind ban on high sided vehicles and having his outfit toppled by yesterdays gale on the Forth Road bridge.

One was also done on one of the Seven crossing

If it's windy I'd rather not be driving in the motorhome and hopefully if it was bad enough for this sort of warning I'd have found somewhere to tuck up.

Out of interest does anyone know what constitutes a high sidded vehicle? Is it defined anywhere? 

On Tay road bridge it is anything higher than a small removal van such as a transit often used as a " man and van" hire. Before automatic barriers installed bridge staff often turned them back. Single decker buses ok presumably because of weight and low centre of gravity of engine and fuel tank.. 

I am with Bakers on this one, we try and plan round severe wind events, perhaps delaying or bringing travel forward. Whilst I realise this is not as easy for someone doing a job of work, to put others lives at risk by ignoring a bridge closed warning is totally irresponsible, and the punishment was IMO appropriate.

It would be interesting to know what the insurance companies take would be on any damage to the vehicle, in such curcumstances.

Not to mention the cost of recovery, possible damage to crash barriers, and huge inconvenience to other drivers!

Trying to remember......presumably there are no height barriers for these circumstances on the Forth bridge?

Sounds like time Nicola organised some!

I commuted to work over the bridge, by car and motorcycle, for almost 5 years, cannot remember encountering such frequent high winds back in the 70s as we seem to get now.

On the Cleddau Bridge linking north and south Pembrokeshire high sided is above 1.9 metres.

Thank you for replying. I'm useless at putting things like this in context. I'll have to go measure the height of our car 😂😂.  About a transit type van, as a guesstimate?

I have a limited sympathy for today's HGV drivers, as their employers are pressuring them to arrive on a schedule as a lot of customers give them timed delivery arrival slots, and if they fail to do so then the customer can reject the delivery, or if picking up a load, give it to a rival haulier. Probably the driver going over the Forth bridge did so because for him to divert via the Kincardine bridge would have made him late for his appointed slot.  However the law does make the driver responsible for virtually all aspects, be it the vehicle or otherwise.