Ufton Nervet level crossing: incidents and discussions (merged topics)

[whole diary]

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From BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)

Ufton Nervet rail death man was married father-of-two
A scooter rider hit and killed by a train at a Berkshire level crossing, was a married father-of-two, British Transport Police (BTP^▸ (British Transport Police)) have confirmed.

David Montague, 45, from Woodley, died on Tuesday at Ufton Nervet where seven people were killed when a train derailed in 2004.

BTP said the death of the father, whose children are aged nine and 11, was not suspicious.

A post mortem examination is expected to take place on Thursday.

The train involved was the 12:18 First Great Western service from Paddington to Taunton.

British Transport Police (BTP) said the man was hit by the train at Ufton Nervet at about 13:10 BST.

Rail services were disrupted for several hours, with replacement buses running between Reading and Newbury.

South Central Ambulance said the train driver was also treated at the scene.

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Newbury Weekly News went with the rather dull headline: "It's happened again", then with the subtitle "Horror of 2004 relived as another life is lost on the Ufton Nervet rail crossing"

[Chris from Nailsea]

Interestingly, the implication is that it's the fault of the Ufton Nervet Level Crossing itself that it's led to so much loss of human life.

My sympathy is with the train driver and railway staff involved, and the deceased's family and friends, in this latest sad incident.

Power car 43034 is 'TravelWatch SouthWest', by the way. 

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From Get Reading

Tributes to teacher David Montague

The cousin of a popular teacher whose scooter was hit by a train at Ufton Nervet says he has lost ^the nicest person you could ever ask to meet^.

David Montague, 45, a father of two from Woodley, was killed instantly when his silver Piaggio was struck by a high speed train on the level crossing on Tuesday lunchtime.

The Canadian had worked at Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning for six years, where he taught modern languages.

He began his teaching career at Reading Girls^ School in Whitley and joined the independent boys^ school in Sonning Lane in 2006.

Aaron Putman, who emailed getreading from Canada, was due to meet up with his cousin soon.

He said: ^I was really looking forward to catching up. If you knew David, he was the nicest person you could ever ask to meet.

^He was very giving of his time to his students and loved his family.^

Mr Putman said he was struggling to understand what had happened.

^From all the articles I am reading about this, it just doesn^t make sense,^ he said.

Staff and pupils past and present at Reading Blue Coat School have expressed their sorrow and sympathy.

Michael Windsor, headteacher at Reading Blue Coat, said: ^We are shocked and devastated to lose David, who was a well respected colleague and completely committed to his teaching.

^He always put the interest of his pupils first and showed great enthusiasm for his subject.

^He was a popular colleague and a very warm man and very much enjoyed the collegiate environment of the school.

^I spoke to his wife this morning to express my condolences to her and the family.^

Former Blue Coat pupil Adilet Adalbayev said: ^I remember in Grade Nine I was in bottom set French and our class^s attitude towards French was pathetic, However, his enthusiasm and drive to teach us was absolutely outstanding.

^He never gave up on us and for that I thank him.^

Viv Angus, headteacher of Reading Girls^ School, said: ^He was well respected by his colleagues and students and took a keen interest in extra curricular activities such as talent shows and school fairs.

^He was a lovely man who was very pleasant and a good sense of humour ^ he brought his wry Canadian humour with him.^

Mr Montague lived in a large semi-detached house in Welford Road with his wife and two children, aged nine and 11.

Angela Pani, 66, who lives two doors away, said: ^We never exchanged too much with them, but he was always a very charming chap.^

British Transport Police and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch are not treating the death as suspicious.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Please do not think for one moment that I am trying to assign the blame for level crossing accidents but why are some level crossings fitted with full barriers and some half?

is it anything to do with the classification of the road they serve?

I must stress this is purely a technical question I am not trying to apportion blame in any way.

Dave

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My understanding is that it's based on NRs^» (Network Rail - home page) "level crossing risk assessments". Which no doubt factor how busy the road is, the roads speed limit, the track speed limit, previous incidents etc.

I'm sure someone can give you a better answer.

[bobm]

I read somewhere, but I cannot find the reference at the moment, that where a crossing is controlled by a train approaching a crossing half barriers are provided to prevent motorists being trapped between the gates.  Where a crossing is either locally controlled or monitored by CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) the operator confirms the crossing is clear before allowing a train to proceed so full barriers can be used.

Therefore in this case CCTV would have to be provided and the crossing monitored from Colthrop (I assume) which also controls the crossings nearer Thatcham.  I think there are plans to move the operation of the other crossings to the new signalling centre at Didcot at some point.  Maybe in the light of the recent incidents at Ufton Nervet consideration may be given to changing the status of that crossing at the same time?

[JayMac]

AHB (Automatic Half Barrier) crossings are only installed where the line speed is no greater than 100 mph. The crossing at Ufton Nervet is an AHB and is operated by approaching trains and is not interlocked with signals. It is also not controlled on site or monitored by CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision).

Further reading on level crossing types can be found at the following links:

For the layman: http://www.railsigns.co.uk/info/xings1/xings1.html
In depth technical: http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/level_crossings_guidance.pdf

Network Rail have also produced a guide for vehicle and pedestrian users of level crossings:

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Levelcrossinguserguide.pdf

[SandTEngineer]

.....mmm but things are changing.  There is now a new type of approved level crossing called an MCB^▸ (Miniature Circuit Breaker)-OD (Manned Controlled Barrier with Obstacle Detector).  This type of level crossing can have full barriers (two half barriers each side) and no CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) and can be lowered and raised automatically by the passage of trains.  Crossing clear is proved by a radar scan in two stages during the lowering sequence.  Because there is no need for CCTV the cost of the level crossing is reduced and the signallers workload is also reduced.  In effect it becomes a full barrier level crossing working automatically and is thus considerably safer than an AHBC^▸ (Automatic Half Barrier Crossing).  (Sorry, might need to add some of this to the Acronyms page)

Not that we are too far behind the continent here of course..............

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Another article from the Newbury Weekly News.

Overcrowding fears raised in wake of latest Ufton Nervet death

THE danger of train overcrowding has reared its head again in the wake of another death at the Ufton Nervet crossing.

Newbury resident Ben Wood sent this picture to NewburyToday.co.uk having been caught up in the delays which occurred following the death of Woodley man David Montague at the Ufton Lane crossing last Tuesday.

^Shocking overcrowding on the 17.33 from Paddington to Paington. But don^t worry, the guard came on and assured us it was ^perfectly safe^. Thankfully we made it to Newbury in one piece,^ Mr Wood said.

First Great Western said there was little to connect the incident in 2004, the death on Tuesday, and the problem of overcrowded carriages, but re-iterated its stance that despite reports which proved that trains serving Newbury were among the most overcrowded in the country it had done more to improve safety and make extra space available for passengers.

A spokesman for the train operator, James Davis said buffet cars had been converted into carriages, and an extra 4,500 seats had been made available over services through Newbury and Reading to London Paddington.

Following last week^s incident at Ufton Nervet, the MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) for Wokingham, John Redwood, repeated his calls for greater safety on trains and made the case for seatbelts, however local commuter groups have opposed the idea.

^When we had the proper report into the last train tragedy it was quite clear to me, many of the fatalities and injuries on the train occurred because people were thrown around inside the train by the very rapid braking and deceleration and I therefore still think we need seat belts,^ Mr Redwood said.

Railfuture Thames Valley branch spokesman Hugh Jaeger thanked Mr Redwood for caring about the safety of rail passengers but said rail was consistently found to be one of the safest modes of transport.

^Fitting and maintaining tens of thousands of seatbelts would cost many millions of pounds, but without significantly reducing casualties because they are extremely low already,^ he said.

^What good would seatbelts be on the many overcrowded trains on which hundreds of passengers have to stand?

Passengers would be far safer if there were enough extra coaches to give everyone a place to sit.^

Mr Jaeger said there were many other issues around the safety of the railways which needed attention.

The next release of statistics related to train overcrowding from the Office for Rail Regulation are scheduled for August.

Last week it emerged that Network Rail has been fined ^150,000 following the death of a track maintenance worker and the serious injury of another in two incidents in the Thames Valley region in 2007 and 2008.

Union RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) called for the Government to halt the job cuts at the core of the report by Sir Roy McNulty into rail efficiency and how to increase profits.

The McNulty Review called for the closure of 750 small station booking offices around the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), which included those at Thatcham, Theale, Pangbourne, Goring, Reading West and Tilehurst.

[BerkshireBugsy]

As a frequent passenger who crosses the Ufton Nervett crossing on all of my journies, I never get worried when using this route.

However on the rare occasions I use the Reading to Paddington route I do get concerned if I have to stand up in a packed HST^▸ (High Speed Train) for the whole journey. THis is more from a safety rather than a comfort point of view. Although thankfully train crashes are very rare I feel more vunerable standing up. There may be no logic to this and it is probably physcological.

[Southern Stag]

The main cause of fatalities at Ufton Nervet where the strengthened glass windows which broke when trains were inverted on their sides with passengers thrown out of the windows. The replacing of all the windows with laminated glass as has happened should mean that the windows don't break so passengers are kept inside the train which is obviously much safer. Replacing the old seats and tables which deformed quite badly causing injuries should have helped as well. All the work done on fitting seatbelts concluded that they wouldn't be that useful. Fitting laminated glass is probably the single best thing that's been done, and the fact that some other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) such as EMT^» (East Midlands Trains - about) haven't fitted it to their HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) is quite worrying and something people should be campaigning about.

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The NWN have another article (an article a day keep the Doctor away?), for brevity, I'll just include the title and opening paragraph. You can follow the link if you want to read it!

No change to Ufton Nervet level crossing despite fatality
THE RAIL industry is refusing to buckle over calls to make alterations to the Ufton Nervet level crossing despite another death at the notorious spot last week.

[JayMac]

That article may be premature as findings by the RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) into this most recent incident and the earlier 'near miss' are yet to be published.

Knee-jerk reactions are never the best course of action. Let all investigations be completed before changes are considered or made. Unless there is immediate action that has to be taken. In this recent incident early indications are that the crossing operated correctly.

One of my fellow moderators, Chris from Nailsea, sums up the issue pretty succinctly in his forum signature:

'Level crossings on the railway network are safe - unless they are used in an unsafe manner.'

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'Level crossings on the railway network are safe - unless they are used in an unsafe manner.'

Certainly one exception which was the non-functioning barriers at Ufton Nervot previously. Although RAIB^▸ (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) haven't yet published their report.