Research by a North-East university has devised ways to make the UK's road bridges safer, amid concerns that it is too easy for vehicles to plunge on to railway lines.

A project headed by Professor Brian Hobbs, director of the school of science and technology at the University of Teesside, working with research engineer Peter Newton, has revealed that many of Britain's 40,000 ageing masonry and brick parapets are in a weak condition.

The team, which is in partnership with Sheffield and Liverpool universities, is working on ways of reinforcing the parapets, many of which date from the 19th Century, without ruining their appearance.

Its project has attracted interest from industry and public bodies because of concerns following the Selby rail disaster, a year ago.

In that incident, a car towing a trailer plunged down an embankment on to the East Coast main line to be struck by a train.

Among the ten fatalities was passenger Steve Baldwin, who was professor of psychology at the University of Teesside.

The Northern Echo has been campaigning for action to strengthen defences over bridges.

Last Thursday, a van ended up on a railway line having gone through a parapet in Lincolnshire. The driver died.

On Friday, a car crashed through a bridge at Berwick and was only prevented from hitting the line when it was strapped to a fire engine.

Prof Hobbs heads a six- year programme which ends in June, funded by a £330,000 Government grant and backed by Railtrack and London Underground.

The study uses a rig at the university's heavy structures laboratory, in Middlesbrough, in which walls can be constructed and subjected to impacts.

The findings reveal that although most parapets would halt a car, only a minority could withstand a larger vehicle.

Even parapets stopping a car would suffer damage resulting in masonry being dislodged.

Prof Hobbs said: "The parapets were designed using the current good practice from the time, but since then the volume and speed of traffic have increased dramatically.

"Concerns about vehicles on railway lines means our work has assumed a higher profile.

"What we are doing is trying to improve safety. We have developed a way of reinforcing the bridge parapets without it being obvious from the outside."

Initially the team used steel reinforcements, but is now working on fibrecomposites and talking to an international company about continuing to develop the technology after June.

Prof Hobbs said that Railtrack and London Underground had also been discussing ways of prolonging the project