This happened here in Nottingham this morning. You really do have to be a special kind of stupid to achieve it, but it is far from being the first time exactly the same thing has happened. Frankly, it wouldn’t really surprise me if some of them are repeat offenders, either.
Basically, someone drove on to a tram-only route in Lenton and managed to get a fair distance up the bridge until they were grounded on the rails and came to a stop. The image above is taken from the other side, but on the approach on the other side, this is what you see:
Now, I must be honest and say that having the tram go in a more or less straight line like that, with cars having to steer to the right, is just asking for trouble. I know that, because a disturbing number of my learners will happily drive in a straight line even if there is a brick wall in front of them until I read them the riot act after the first time they try it. The general public is barely at a higher driving standard at the best of times.
Yes, the ‘No Entry’ signs – all twelve of them – might not be quite the giveaway you’d expect, even though ‘Except trams’ is added under every one of them. The ‘TRAM ONLY’ lettering on the road could we whiter (and they could even illuminate it and have it shoot jets of flame). And the big rectangular sign stating ‘WARNING – DO NOT FOLLOW TRAMS BEYOND THIS POINT’, which was put up after the numerous previous instances of people doing just that, might still not ring any bells. And God forbid that the sudden 30cm drop, metal grids, and bits of rock instead of Tarmac 15 metres further on should alert you to some kind of issue. But clearly, none of this has any effect whatsoever on some people.
The funny thing is the number of ‘No Entry’ signs has gradually increased over time as events of this exact same nature have repeated themselves. They only put the big rectangular ‘DO NOT FOLLOW’ one up because there was no more space for ‘No Entry’ signs.
Indeed, the sad specimen in this case had managed to get over the other side of the rise on the bridge before grinding to a halt. You can only wonder where they might have ended up if they’d managed to keep moving.
The real problem was that they also caused the tram system to grind to a halt, too, while engineers removed the vehicle and checked the lines.
There really is no excuse. The driver in question ought to have their licence revoked.