THE "intelligent" rising bollard in York city centre has claimed another victim.

The number six First bus collided with the Stonebow bollard when it apparently failed to go down at about 4.45pm yesterday.

No one is believed to have been hurt in the incident, but traffic was disrupted for a time while the debris was cleared away and the incident caused a log-jam with several buses backing up along Stonebow.

Peter Edwards, of First, said it would be carrying out a thorough investigation to find out what happened.

Every bus and taxi in the city is fitted with a sensor that makes the bollard drop on approach, but on this occasion something went wrong.

This is not the first time things have gone awry with the Stonebow bollard.

In January this year, a paramedic was taken to hospital with whiplash injuries when his ambulance hit the bollard as the vehicle sped to a 999 call.

The traffic control device has seen a catalogue of mishaps since it was installed in October, 2000, at a cost of £60,000 by City of York Council in a bid to stop "rat-running" through the city centre.

It was switched off only two weeks after its launch following five accidents involving unauthorised vehicles. It was back in operation on November, 2000, but in December a taxi collided with it.

In March, 2001, it was out of action due to a power failure, and in May, 2001, the bollard rose beneath a bus full of passengers. No one was injured.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: "We are investigating why this particular bus hit the bollard and examination of the CCTV footage shows very clearly that the bollard was operating correctly all the way through the afternoon and in the seconds before the bus hit it.

"The bollard was actually going down when the bus hit the top six inches of it."

Updated: 09:54 Friday, May 13, 2005