Monday Accidents and Lessons Learned: Collapsed Bridge onto Railway Lines

In Leicestershire, a bridge built in 1840 partially collapsed causing debris and chunks to fall directly onto an open railway. This bridge had recently been investigated due to its age and lack of current engineering best practices. They found a water leak coming from the water main, but this was not considered an imminent threat at the time. A work order for the leaking water main was issued and construction began. Later the same evening of the initial work, the pressure from the water leak ruptured. The result of this bridge collapse were better than they could have been. No fatalities or even injuries. However, the railway line was obstructed and required clean up of all the debris. What could they have done differently when performing this investigation? Could this incident have been prevented?

(Resource: https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/partial-collapse-of-a-bridge-onto-open-railway-lines-at-barrow-upon-soar)