Dudley has Britain’s second most ‘bashed bridge’ – and it’s causing huge disruption for travellers from across the borough and the Black Country.

The Bromford Road railway bridge was hit 24 times in a year – almost once a fortnight.

While second in the bashed bridges league, it is top of the league when it comes to the amount of disruption caused.

Crashes there caused the largest rail passenger delays, with a staggering 4,300 minutes -almost 72 hours- of disruption for Black Country commuters.

Across the country railway bridges are struck five times every day on average, causing unnecessary delays and safety risks for rail passengers, motorists and locals, and now Network Rail has launched a new campaign aimed at lorry drivers.

The ‘Lorries can’t limbo’ campaign has been rolled out to motorway service stations, asking lorry drivers to ‘Wise Up, Size Up’ before starting their journeys.

The bashed bridges league table has been released ahead of the normal spike in incidents which happens on Black Friday and Christmas.

Bridge strikes are both dangerous and costly, and there is a Bridge Strike Prevention Group made up of Network Rail, hauliers and others which helped reduce the problem by 11% last year.

The Watling Street bridge on the A5 in Hinckley, Leicestershire, has the unenviable title of Britain’s most-bashed bridge after being struck 25 times in the last year.

The top three bashed bridges are in the Midlands.

Here are the top 5:

1. Watling Street Hinckley, Leicestershire 25 strikes

2. Bromford Road Dudley, West Midlands 24 strikes

3. St John's Street Lichfield, Staffordshire 23 strikes

4. Stuntney Road Ely, Cambridgeshire 19 strikes

5. Abbey Farm Thetford, Norfolk 16 strikes