Police slam rubbernecking motorists and pedestrians after lorry hits bridge on A31 near Ringwood

POLICE slammed rubbernecking motorists and pedestrians for endangering themselves and others to take pictures after a lorry struck a bridge on the A31 near Ringwood.

Some were seen using their mobile phones while driving and crossing a cordon to snap the incident in which a white DAF HGV struck the bridge on the eastbound carriageway, near the Woolsbridge Roundabout, at around 3.30pm last Thursday.

The driver escaped with minor injuries despite the cab having been badly damaged.

They were out of the vehicle and being assessed by paramedics when firefighters from Ringwood and Ferndown arrived at the scene.

Officers closed the dual carriageway in both directions between Boundary Lane Roundabout and Ashley Heath Roundabout for about two hours. This caused eastbound traffic queues back along the Ferndown Bypass, while westbound traffic was tailed back up Poulner Hill.

One lane of the eastbound carriageway then remained closed until shortly after 6pm, with traffic queuing back to Boundary Lane. Another collision on the westbound carriageway also caused tailbacks in that direction.

The entire eastbound carriageway was then closed again shortly after 8pm for about eight hours as teams recovered the lorry and carried out emergency barrier repairs.

Praising other drivers for their patience, a Dorset Traffic Cops Facebook post afterwards said: “Unfortunately, some weren’t as helpful as an abundance of other drivers and pedestrians acted unusually in the quest to capture this incident for themselves – driving whilst using a phone past a collision scene covered in police officers and moving under police cordon tape to photograph under a 25ft shipping container are just two examples.

“Such behaviour exposes the individual plus emergency workers to needless risk so if you really need a photo, find an alternative – it’s really not worth someone dying for!”