A SPANISH driver who jammed his lorry under a railway bridge in Burnley, caused trains to be cancelled and hours of Traffic chaos.

The driver of the articulated lorry lost his way to Nelson and found himself on Barden Lane, going towards Burnley.

His lorry and 14ft high trailer became trapped underneath the 12ft high railway bridge outside Barden Mill, blocking both sides of the road from 8.30am to mid afternoon yesterday.

Barden Mill's assistant manager Martin Vernon said trade was down because customers driving from the Burnley area could not get through.

Traffic Sgt Eric Marshall said: "The trailer was full of beds, many of which were damaged in the accident. "Because of the damage to the trailer we were not able to separate the two halves of the lorry. We unloaded the trailer and cut off the back end to get the cab free and pull the trailer back under the bridge.

"We closed the road to vehicles and the road underneath the bridge was closed to pedestrians, because we were concerned the trailer might split."

Police said they were fortunate that three people who were passing spoke fluent Spanish. They enabled the police to communicate with the driver and let him know what was going on.

The lorry was being driven to Bright Designs on Lomeshaye Industrial Estate. The company sent out several smaller lorries to remove the trailer's contents.

Once the vehicle had been removed, trains to Nelson and Colne were resumed.

It is only five weeks since another lorry was trapped under the same bridge, which is clearly marked with a 12ft-height restriction.