Prague road reopens after truck gets stuck under bridge, causing millions in damage

Prague’s Vídeňská street reopened without restrictions Friday after firefighters freed a truck carrying a drilling rig that had become wedged beneath a railway bridge in Krč. Police put the preliminary damage estimate at several tens of millions of crowns.

The truck became stuck Wednesday evening, Oct. 7, near the junction with the Jižní spojka road. It was freed around 11 p.m. Thursday after an operation involving several specialist recovery vehicles. Nobody was injured.

Police announced the road’s full reopening shortly after 1 p.m. Friday. Restrictions had continued through the morning while crews removed the drilling rig, cleared the site and assessed damage to the road.

Attempts to free the truck proved more complicated than initially expected. A specialist recovery tank belonging to Správa železnic, Czechia’s railway infrastructure administrator, broke down during Thursday’s operation.

Firefighters called in a backup tank from Zbiroh, but that vehicle also failed to release the truck. Another recovery tank operated by railway firefighters arrived from Přerov that evening.

A crane supplied by the company Švestka served as an anchor point for the tank during the recovery effort.

Firefighters loaded the drilling rig onto a replacement low-loader around 6:15 a.m. Friday. Fire service spokesman Miroslav Řezáč confirmed after 7 a.m. that it had been taken away.

Vídeňská was closed to outbound traffic from Wednesday evening, with both directions shut during parts of the recovery operation. The closure also disrupted several bus routes serving southern Prague.

Prague’s road administrator, Technická správa komunikací, said the recovery work damaged the road surface. Spokeswoman Barbora Lišková told ČTK that temporary repairs had allowed traffic to resume fully.

Police are investigating the incident as a traffic accident. Police spokeswoman Eva Kropáčová told ČTK that the driver had violated road signs. The damage estimate remains preliminary.

For passengers traveling through Krč, the road closure has ended and Prague’s public transport operator has marked the associated bus disruption notice as completed.