Great Western Coffee Shop

The RAIB is investigating a near-miss between the 17:03 hrs Northern Rail passenger train from Manchester Airport to Southport and a car at Four Lane Ends level crossing, near Burscough Bridge, Lancashire, on Friday 28 September 2012.

The train was travelling at about 96 km/h (60 mph) when its driver saw the car driving over the crossing in front of the train. He responded by applying the emergency brake.

The level crossing is at the intersection of four minor roads and is protected by barriers and miniature stop lights on each side of the railway. The barriers are normally in the lowered position preventing access across the railway. They are raised by a crossing keeper, employed by Network Rail, when road traffic approaches and there are no trains approaching. The approach of trains is automatically indicated to the road users and the crossing keeper by the normally green miniature stop lights extinguishing and red ones illuminating. This indication is repeated in the crossing keeper^s cabin. When a red light is showing the crossing keeper must not raise the barriers, although there is no engineered safeguard preventing him from doing so.

(http://www.raib.gov.uk/cms_resources/Four%20Lane%20Ends%20LC.jpg)
Four Lane Ends level crossing

The RAIB^s investigation will focus on how the current design of the crossing has arisen; the key area of interest being that a single human error can result in the barriers being raised when a train is approaching and the miniature stop lights are showing red. It will also look at the actions taken following earlier incidents and accidents, including a near-miss at this same crossing and a fatal accident at Moreton-on-Lugg in January 2010 (RAIB report 04/2011), and work proposed for future upgrade of the crossing.

The RAIB will report on its findings at the conclusion of its investigation. This will be published on the RAIB website.

3 The crossing keeper made an error and raised the barriers when the lights were showing red in response to the car waiting at the crossing. He had been distracted by spilling a hot drink over a computer keyboard and did not check the indication of the lights before raising the barriers.
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Learning points
25 The RAIB has decided not to conduct a full investigation as it does not believe that an investigation would lead to the identification of any further recommendations. However, this incident reinforces the lesson highlighted by the RAIB^s Moreton-on-Lugg investigation that engineered safeguards are desirable at level crossings operated by railway staff to prevent situations where a single human error could result in the opening of a level crossing to road users before an approaching train has passed over the crossing.

26 A further learning point is that the use of simple reminder appliances (paragraph 15) can be a useful mitigation measure to reduce the probability of incorrect actions being made in error.