MOTORISTS were hit by traffic chaos after a lorry became stuck under a railway bridge in Whalley New Road, Blackburn.

Steve Boice, of Great Mills DIY, Bristol, said he never wanted to come to the town again after driving his 15ft 10in lorry under the 14ft 9in Skew Bridge.

He said: "I heard a big bang and it was all over in a minute. Because of the shape of the bridge, the lorry was pushed on its side as it went under and ended up leaning against the wall."

The lorry was jammed at a 45 degree angle with one set of wheels off the ground and Steve was forced to jump from the cab more than six feet to the ground.

Nobody was hurt during the incident, but traffic quickly backed up along the road until police set up diversions down the side streets.

The half-hourly trains from Manchester to Clitheroe were stopped for two hours while rescue trucks removed the vehicle and engineers checked the bridge.

Railtrack supervisor Sue Johnson said: "He did a lot more damage to his lorry than to our bridge. We stopped the trains while they were removing the vehicle because we were concerned that we would do more damage to the bridge while taking the lorry out.

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