Train crash: The level crossing warnings


02 March 2007 09:57

A terrified commuter tried in vain to escape from his car after realising it was going to be hit by a passenger train.

The 56-year-old man, thought to be from Swainsthorpe, was killed while attempting to swerve his car around safety barriers which came down over the level crossing in the village yesterday morning.

Early reports suggest the driver tried to get out of his car after realising he could not cross before the 10-carriage express train, travelling at 100mph, approached.

The force of the crash, which happened at 7.25am, left the driver's silver Vauxhall Astra a mangled wreck - but while the train driver and some of the 44 passengers on board were left in shock, none suffered injury and the train stayed on the tracks.

The man's body was found close to the level crossing on Church Road and the remains of his car were shunted a mile up the line.

Villager Gisela Baker, who lives near the crossing, said: “I heard a thud. It sounded like a big lorry coming over the railway line too quickly. In the past I have seen cars going across the crossing when the barriers were down. It's unbelievable but people chance it.”

Paul Gowman, chairman of Swainsthorpe Parish Council, said: “The crossing is not dangerous, but what is dangerous is the way people use it. The barriers come down with ample warning and ample time, but people choose to drive around them or drive over them.”

British Transport Police confirmed the 6.22 Colchester to Norwich train hit a car “moving across the crossing in the direction of Norwich” and officers are treating it as a fatal road traffic accident.

The crash left the rail service in chaos and the site was not cleared until after 1pm. Services between Liverpool Street and Norwich only started running again at 6pm.

Last night, with the first trains passing through Swainsthorpe, it emerged that a campaign had been launched in the village last weekend calling for improvements to be made to the Church Road crossing.

And MP Richard Bacon yesterday wrote to the transport secretary Douglas Alexander calling for an urgent review of half-barrier crossings, which he claimed represent “too great an opportunity for misuse”.

The collision came just one day after the Office of Rail Regulation called for massive safety improvements to be made to level crossings, calling for many to be replaced by bridges.

It said that Britain's 7,700 level crossings represent the greatest risk of a fatal rail accident on the rail network. The risk of a fatality in a road/rail collision is 40 to 45pc greater than in a road traffic accident.

The entire village of Swainsthorpe was sealed off for much of yesterday while the man's body was recovered and Network Rail officials and British Transport Police started investigations into what happened.

Police said eyewitnesses had told them the Astra was being driven over the track when the crash took place and had not been stationary, ruling out suicide. A spokesman for Network Rail confirmed that the level crossing barriers were working and a senior rail source confirmed the car had been hit while zig-zagging through the crossing.

Yesterday, thousands of commuters from London had to disembark at Diss and take coaches to Norwich. Throughout the day, One railway had encouraged passengers to travel to the capital via Cambridge, suspending ticket restrictions from Norwich.

Yesterday's fatality was the third in 18 months along the stretch, and has similarities to the death of Darrell Sheens in November 2005. Mr Sheens was ruled to have driven deliberately on to the track and made no attempt to avoid a three-carriage train holding 15 people. His car burst into flames and was shunted a quarter of a mile down the track.

Last November saw a second suicide at Swainsthorpe after a man was hit by a train while standing on the line.

Richard Bacon, MP for South Norfolk, said yesterday: “I've had a long talk with Network Rail about this and they say half barriers are no more risky than full barriers. There is a chance that cars could get caught in between two full barriers, but people won't generally take the risk by attempting to cross those after the lights start flashing.

“When there's the capability of zig-zagging through half barriers, some people will foolishly take it, and in the light of today's collision there needs to be an urgent review of their future use.

“It makes the argument for having full barriers so much stronger. We need to make it certain that it is impossible to get across the track when the barriers descend.”

Swainsthorpe villager Claire Turner spent last weekend launching a petition among villagers at Swainsthorpe, demanding improvements to Church Road to make it more safe.

She said: “I spent Saturday talking to people along Church Road and everyone was in agreement about how dangerous the crossing is there. Because of that I'm putting together a petition. There have been previous incidents and today's crash is sadly just the latest example of the problems along there. We need a whole raft of new safety measures along the road to prevent anything like this ever happening again.”

District councillor John Peterson added: “This level crossing is something I do think needs to be looked at; clearly this is not the first time something like this has happened on it. I'm sure there will be an inquiry into the collision and one of the areas I hope it will look at is whether full barriers would be safer than half barriers.”

Anyone with information should contact British Transport Police them on 0207 3801400.

Should we do more to improve safety at railway crossings? Write to Evening News Letters, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich NR1 1RE, e-mail eveningnewsletters@archant.co.uk or log on to eveningnews24.co.uk/forums

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