REGARDING your article (LET, March 23) about a "bridge bash" on Whalley New Road, Langho, where a lorry had tried to get under the rail-over-road bridge, the lorry was too big and hit the bridge, resulting in three cancelled trains and four others being delayed -- not to mention the fact that the lorry ended up on its side.

All this misery could so easily have been avoided.

The operations manager of the company involved said the driver was an agency person who would have planned his own route. If only he had looked at the Railtrack/Automobile Association Truckers Atlas he would have seen the bridge specifically mentioned. The 2001 edition of the atlas has details of 1,600 road and rail bridge heights, each of which is shown alongside the location of the bridge. This means that when plotting a route, a driver cannot fail to see where he is likely to run into trouble and how to re-route himself to avoid it.

The atlas only costs £11.99 and is available from all good bookshops -- a small price to pay that could save thousands of pounds and possibly lives.

KEITH LUMLEY, Media Relations Manager, Railtrack, Store Street, Manchester.