Embarrassing misfortune as lorry aborts entering Leighton Buzzard due to width restriction

The LBO was sent this photo by reader Neil Cairns who witnessed the lorry ending up in a roadside ditch when the driver realised the vehicle wouldn’t fit through the two-metre gap and he was forced to perform a turning manouevre.

The incident happened last Monday and Neil said: “We on the Leighton Buzzard Railway Permanent Way Team were entertained by a large tipper lorry trying to turn round because its driver had failed to read the signs in Vandyke Road about the 2m restriction outside Vandyke School. When it tried to turn around, its rear end sank into the ditch!”

It’s not the first time Neil has seen the width restriction claim a victim while he was working on the railway.

We previously reported how a lorry had become wedged between the bollards when trying to get through the gap, blocking the road for five hours in 2014.

At the time a Central Beds Council spokesman said: “Thankfully this is a very rare occurrence which shows that the message, that this is not the route into Leighton Buzzard for HGVs, has been getting through since the preventative measures were put in place.

“There is a large school adjacent and very narrow streets ahead so the restriction is there for a reason, but the council would still urge drivers of large goods vehicles to be aware of the signs put in place so this does not happen again.”