'Confused' motorist drove over cycle bridge

A Jaguar driver made a “terrible mistake” by driving on to a cycle bridge over a railway line in Cambridge. The driver mounted the bridge where a bollard is missing  and carried on up the structure before reversing all the way down again when he realised his error. Users of the bridge reported hearing “creaking and cracking” as it bore the weight of the vehicle.

Cyclist Ruth Platt, who took these pictures, said it had been 20 or 30 minutes between her seeing the car on the bridge on Friday morning to it rejoining the road. The 43-year-old said: “There were a lot of cyclists getting off and giving him a hard time. He didn't hurt anybody, it was a genuine mistake-how somebody makes a mistake like that i don't know."



Mrs Platt who was on her way home when she saw the car, said she had been confused at first and cycled past him and back again. She asked him if he realised he was in the wrong and the driver replied he'd made a "terrible mistake." The man, thought to be in his late 50s, said he just needed to reverse slowly out after Mrs Platt asked if he needed any help. She said: "I could hear a bit of creaking and cracking.

"I hope the engineers made the bridge structurally strong enough for a car. A car is much heavier than any amount of bikes at any one time." But she said no-one had been in danger from the Jaguar during the incident because the driver had been going so slowly. She said: "I just felt really bad for him. He was not being arrogant. He was not thinking he could just take a shortcut. He really had made a big mistake."