An infamous railway bridge has had a very fluorescent makeover in an attempt to stop drivers getting wedged underneath it.

The bridge in Lower Downs Road, Wimbledon, is well known for causing train delays due to vans misjudging the low tunnel, but has now been adorned with a bright yellow sign declaring ‘Low Bridge’.

Wimbledon Times:

The bridge is an accident hot spot

Steve Waghorn, 64, a retired civil servant living in Southdown Road, says he has seen countless vehicles hit the bridge in his 22 years living nearby, including an ambulance earlier this month.

Mr Waghorn said: “The huge banner is a bit of an eyesore, but so far it’s worked. Nothing has hit it this week at least!

“It’s been getting ridiculous. We normally get about one a week. At the start of August we had two vans and an ambulance get stuck underneath all in one week.

July 7: Another van falls victim to the bridge on Lower Downs Road - trains delayed between Wimbledon and Raynes Park

“I’ll be sitting in the kitchen having a cup of tea and then suddenly I’ll hear this bang and crash, and I’ll think ‘there’s another one’”.

He added: “The sign doesn’t look great, but if they don’t realise it’s a low bridge now then they never will.”

A spokeswoman for Merton Council said: “We welcome the news of a new sign on the bridge owned by Network Rail.

Wimbledon Times:

"As a local authority, we have done all we can to alert drivers to the height of the bridge by installing a height detector which senses if a vehicle is too high and sets off warning lights.

"Hopefully there are enough signs in place now to deter drivers from taking the risk.

“We’ll be monitoring the bridge closely to see what impact the signs have, and will review in the future whether any further steps need to be taken.”

A spokesman for Network Rail, Owen Johns, said, “Lower Downs Road bridge has been struck by vehicles 64 times since 2008, an average of eight times per year, and we’ve already had five bridge strikes this year.

"Each of these incidents can cause delays to thousands of passengers, and we’re hoping that the new signs on the bridge will make drivers think twice before driving under the bridge in high vehicles."

What do you think of the new signs? Email letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk