Carleton railway crossing branded a 'disaster' as road is closed due to malfunction

Blackpool Road has been closed due to the faulty crossing barriers. Credit: Lancs Road Police

The railway crossing at Carleton has been branded a 'disaster' after the barriers malfunctioned causing the busy Blackpool Road to be closed.

The incident happened shortly before 1pm after the barriers became stuck causing disruption for motorists.

Joseph Jolly, 19, from Carleton, took a video of the incident and warned Network Rail about the dangerous barriers.

He said: "This is very worrying. The local residents are not happy with this. We knew that Network Rail should have kept the signal box and it was a disaster waiting to happen and it’s rather worrying. Someone is going to get killed if they don’t sort this out sooner rather than later."

A spokesman from Network Rail said: "Our Control team are aware of the issue and engineers are on scene currently."

Lancashire Police said officers were called out at shortly after 1pm to help officers from British Transport Police manage traffic. The road was closed

This isn't the first time the barriers have got stuck. In October last year the barriers remained up and caused traffic chaos. The Gazette also reported in June that rail chiefs employed staff to keep watch of the crossing 24 hours a day due to CCTV cameras not working.