Another A12 Bridge Warning

pinkteapot

Those in Essex may remember a spate of incidents last year whereby little you-know-whats threw bricks, lumps of concrete etc off the bridges over the A12 at cars passing underneath. One poor woman was seriously injured when she was a passenger in a car and a lump of concrete crashed through the windscreen.

There was another incident where a brick went through a van windscreen yesterday, near Colchester. A group of kids had been seen on the bridge around the time.

Just a warning in case its starting up again to watch out. Though with how busy the A12 normally is it's not particularly safe to slam on the brakes if you see someone about to throw something. :eek:

sunshinetours

Little scum bags - some people have no concept of the results of their actions

marcarm

Which bridge was that?

I live in Colchester and do the A12 everyday, would be nice to know which one to look out for, as well as looking out for all the others as well.

pinkteapot

Here's the story:

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/9853874.Van_driver_s_lucky_escape_after_children_drop_brick_off_A12/

Says it was the Halstead bridge. I live in Colchester too but I'm not quite sure which bridge that is exactly...

Since last year I've been more conscious of the bridges and have been glancing up to see if anyone's on them.

muckybutt

I dare say this happens alot all over the country, Ive actually detained ladson two seperate occasions.

First one my car was shot at with a BB gun from two lads on a bridge, the BB put a chip in the windscreen which is why I went after the !!!!!!s. The police came and took them away for rollockings, a few days later I recieved an apology from the lad that shot the BB, his parents stumped up for a new windscreen on the basis I didnt press for charges.

Second time I witnessed three lads dropping glass bottles onto the A64 near York. Again I managed to get the lads concerned, the police were very quick in responding to this and were on scene within 5 mins and put a rolling road block in because of the glass on the carrageway.

Trouble is they just dont think of the concequences of what could happen, were all taught about not mucking about on railways - same thing should be done for roads !

pinkteapot

The incident where the lady was injured last year was treated as an attempted murder investigation by Essex Police, as what was dropped was a lump of concrete the size of a bucket. :eek:

Lum

Had this happen to me on the A449 near Monmouth. It really is impossible to describe just how scary it is when this happens, the sickening bang and crunch and the sudden loss of visibility on the part of the windscreen that gets hit.

I was lucky in many ways as it was "only" a housebrick and it hit the passenger side and I only got a piece of glass in one eye. the scratch proof coating on my glasses was damaged by another shard. While the glass was actually perforated nothing actually came though.

Police turned up about half an hour later and didn't find anyone, funny that. Then a 9 hour wait in A&E to get the glass removed.

Strider590

As a general rule, pay attention to bridges and IF you see ANYONE on the bridge, change lanes so that your not driving underneath them (provided its a DC). It's not just bricks you have to worry about, a friend of mine had an attempted suicide jump of a bridge at his car, but fortunately with his Police driver training, he saw the guy and changed lanes before he jumped.........

atrixblue.-MFR-.

bro in law not long had a water mellon put through his ren megane cabreolet windscreen, although this wasnt put through from a bridge, it was done on a local road, three kids went into tesco bought a mellon and the went outside and threw it into my bro in laws moving car.

bro in law caught the boy, who nearly pee'd in his pants, and started crying (because he got caught not from what he had done) and took him home parents are paying the costs of screen plus fitting plus vat.

tesco had the cctv footage of him going in buying it then going literally outside accorss the road to throw it in traffic and gave him a copy of the tape if bro in law went to the police. boy is banned from tesco extra in the village now.

ive had allsorts thrown at me from bridges, from a metal scaffold pipe, eggs and flour, bag of cement, a tyre, tin sheeting, spanner, rocks, stones, bucket, and some kids thought i maybe funny to throw those squidgy sticky balls you get in those toy alien eggs because the wipers cant remove it from the glass. all were misses thank god, bar the last one.

ive caught hold of a few kids behind my house laying down a peice of wood with nails in behind speed humps so drivers cant see what is there untill youve drove over it eventhough thers speedbumps on the road, driver still hammer down this road and all it would of taken is ont to hit it bang the tyre and off the road it would go, ive seen htree cars go airborn and land half on half off the curb and get dragged onto the field where the boys hid so before anything like that happened i went out collared them and took the thing off the road.

marcarm

pinkteapot wrote: »

Here's the story:

http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/9853874.Van_driver_s_lucky_escape_after_children_drop_brick_off_A12/

Says it was the Halstead bridge. I live in Colchester too but I'm not quite sure which bridge that is exactly...

Since last year I've been more conscious of the bridges and have been glancing up to see if anyone's on them.

The Halstead bridge is the one by Sainsburys at Tollgate.

aardvaak

It's school holidays and the little brats don't get disaplined in schools or at home anymore - what about sending them to reformed school?