Car hit by train at Athelney Level Crossing - man killed - 21 March 2013

[whole diary]

[Super Guard]

Sky:  http://news.sky.com/story/1067771/man-dies-as-100mph-train-hits-car-on-crossing

[JayMac]

On board the service involved in this incident were a group of students from the Isca College of Media Arts in Exeter. They were on their way to BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) Radio 1 in London to take part in the BBC News School Report annual 'News Day'.

Those students have published a news article on the BBC News School Report website about the incident.

From the BBC News School Report:

Students escape injury in fatal Somerset train crash

By Emma, Phoebe, Emma, Somin, Denis, Fraser
Isca College of Media Arts in Exeter

BBC News School Reporters from Devon have escaped injury when travelling on a train involved in a fatal crash in Somerset on Thursday morning.

The incident happened at about 06:30 GMT on the line between Taunton and Castle Cary when the train hit a car on a level crossing near Athelney.

One person died but Network Rail and First Great Western said none of the 37 train passengers was injured.

It has been a harrowing and emotional morning for the teenage students who had been heading to the Radio 1 studios in London and were preparing on the train for the BBC News School Report project when the crash occurred.

School Reporter Denis, aged 15, said: "We were talking through some questions on the train to Radio 1, we thought we could smell petrol and we heard a loud bang."

Students Emma, 11, Phoebe, 12, Emma, 13, Somin, 15, Fraser, 15, and Denis, along with three members of staff accompanying them, were transferred to another train and are due to be in London's Paddington Station at around 14:30 GMT.

They are currently running about five hours behind schedule and are aiming to be at London's Radio 1 studios in time to conduct a number of interviews for School Report.

The affected service was the 05:46 GMT from Exeter St Davids to Paddington, London.

Network Rail said the train was not derailed.

More pictures can be found on the Isca College of Media Arts blog.

Whilst the incident had sad consequences, having aspiring journalists on the scene as it happened will have been of great benefit to their learning.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Indeed: having such first hand experience of a breaking news item (and thankfully none of them were hurt, or witnessed anything too distressing, at their age) will surely give such budding journalists an excellent insight into their chosen career.

Meanwhile, my sympathy to the relatives and friends of the deceased, and to the train crew and all others dealing with this latest incident, obviously. 

[bobm]

In the aftermath, Bob Crow and the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) calling for the crossing to be closed - meanwhile some praise from passengers for the on board staff

From This is Somerset.

Rail unions last night called for level crossings to be phased out in the wake of a man dying after apparently driving through a closing barrier and being struck by a high-speed train in Somerset.
 
It happened shortly before 6.30am on the Stanmoor Road crossing near Athelney between Taunton and Castle Cary. Train staff, including the driver, say the half barrier was already closing when the red vehicle came onto the tracks.
 
The car was trapped under the 05.46 service from Exeter to London Paddington and was shunted half a mile down the track.
 
None of the 37 passengers and eight members of staff on board were injured but the two drivers in the cab were said to be ^very distressed^. One person inside the car, believed to be the male driver, was pronounced dead at the scene.
 
RMT transport union general secretary Bob Crow said: ^This latest, shocking fatality will once again shine the spotlight on safety issues at level crossings. RMT has been campaigning for many years to speed up the phasing-out of level crossings, which are a 19th-century solution in an age of high-speed railways.
 
^Wherever road and track come together there is a clear and present danger and as we see far too often it is a lethal combination and the time has come to get serious about addressing this issue ^ cost should not override public and staff safety.^
 
Network Rail said it was treating the incident as ^non- suspicious^, with the focus of the accident investigation on the actions of the driver and not the workings of the crossing.
 
It said the barrier of the crossing was lowered at the time of the crash and the driver is believed to have had to weave around them in order to cross.
 
Aaron Mead, who lives about 100 yards from the crossing, said: ^We heard an almighty bang in the early hours of this morning. A couple of pictures on the bedside table fell over.
 
^I didn^t think anything of it to be honest, and then before we knew it we had endless amounts of sirens, police cars, fire engines and ambulances bombing up and down the road. It made me jump out of bed quite quickly.^
 
James Hector, owner of Willowbank Services less than a mile from the scene, said the barriers close very quickly.
 
^It^s a very fast crossing,^ he said. ^Once the barriers go down the train is there within 30 seconds.
 
^They are half-road barriers so it would be possible to drive around them.^
 
The train involved in the accident returned to Taunton station at lunchtime, where the passengers were finally allowed to disembark after a traumatic six hours.
 
Fire, police and ambulance crews were already at the station to help the badly shaken-up passengers and train crew.
 
The majority of the passengers were directed on to another service to Cardiff, which was calling at Bristol.
 
Stuart Lambert, a passenger on the train, was on his way to London for a training course when the tragedy happened.
 
The teacher, 37, from Taunton, said: ^I was sitting at the back of the train, just dozing, when I felt a shudder and the brakes slam on.
 
^The train came to a controlled stop some distance later, where the announcer told us that someone had jumped the level crossing.
 
^We were told to move to the front of the train, where they kept us calm and refreshed, and kept everyone well informed.^
 
The eight-carriage train returned to Taunton at around noon, almost six hours after the fatal collision.
 
Stuart added: ^A lot of people were shaken up, understandably, but the staff were absolutely brilliant and kept everyone calm and comfortable.^
 
A spokesman for Network Rail said: ^The incident was reported at 6.26am.
 
^The train driver and First Great Western staff have given a statement to British Transport Police that the barriers were lowered and the car was seen to drive onto the crossing.
 
^BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) report the crime scene has been deemed non-suspicious.^

[swrural]

I am sure we are all very grateful for Mr Crow's expert opinion (not).  All this publicity, yet every day 8 people are killed on the roads and no one gives anything like the same attention.   I have a friend who has specialised in the area of road safety and road safety is simply not tackled because it is not allowed to upset motorists.  They must be free to do what they like.

Bob Crow has a point (that he is not quoted as making) that the recklessness of road users does have a traumatic result for his members.  We have a lot of expertise here.  Does anyone know why we half barriers instead of full ones?  It's not to save lifting mechanism electricity usage is it? 

[Scott]

Does anyone know why we half barriers instead of full ones?  It's not to save lifting mechanism electricity usage is it?

Surely they would have been cheaper to install as only two small gates are needed instead of either four small gates or two large ones? Assuming this is correct, it would have been a cost-cutting measure - one that, under normal circumstances, would have been sufficient as people would usually wait when the barrier on their side of the road is closed.

Speaking of which, drivers should normally only use the lane(s) in the other direction to perform an overtake, and then only if the central markings - where they exist - are broken markings. Here, they are solid on both sides of the roads, meaning the one permitted reason to use the opposite lane is not allowed - so surely by darting round the barrier one is braking the Laws of the road even without considering the safety - and legal - aspects of jumping a level crossing.

Crossings such as this are safe when used and observed correctly. And that is a fact.

[bobm]

As I understand it the reason for half barriers, which are used for crossings which are not locally controlled or monitored by CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision), is so that a road vehicle cannot get trapped on the crossing.   With full barriers someone - either at the scene or via a monitor - has to confirm the crossing is clear before permitting a train to cross.   There is no such check with half barriered crossings.

[grahame]

I vaguely recall that half barriers are supposed to avoid people getting trapped on the crossing.   Full barriers, and you have a peril of having to get OFF the crossing if you're on it when the first barriers come down, but with half barriers you've got longer ... until the train comes!

i.e. what bobm just said !

[inspector_blakey]

Bob and Graham are absolutely correct: the barriers block the entrance road but not the exit as the crossings are operated automatically by the passage of trains with no manual intervention as long as things are working normally. However, the state of the equipment at all automatic half-barrier crossings (AHBs) is monitored and in the event of any failure an alarm will sound at the controlling signalling centre so the signaller can take appropriate action.

Full barriers are almost all monitored by a signaller, either locally because they're right next to the box, or remotely by CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision). Obstacle detection equipment (which is intended to detect any obstruction to trains that might be stuck on a full-barrier crossing) is being trialled and just starting to be introduced in a few places at the moment, but it's at a very early stage.

[thetrout]

Crossings such as this are safe when used and observed correctly. And that is a fact.

I'm going to have to completely agree with you there. Peoples driving standards have changed for the worse IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion). If the crossings were used correctly then there would never be a problem. People are in far too much of a rush nowadays.

If I were to walk down the road and got to a level crossing just as the lights were flashing. I'd not hesitate to wait until the train had passed. The train can move a darn sight faster than I can..........! If that made me 5 minutes late for someone or something I would say I chose not to run across the LC^▸ (Level Crossing) so I got there in one piece!

The very, very, very basic principle here is that if you misuse the crossing with intent, trains kill people and it WILL kill you if you're in it's way. End of story. One day you won't be so lucky. I see no need to remove LC's like Bob Crow is suggesting. But the attitude and general road safety awareness (not just on LC's) needs to change in my opinion.

I guess the only 'good' thing about this is that we didn't have another Ufton Nervet! This could potentially have been much more serious and I guess we should be thankful this wasn't the case. As always, sympathies and condolences to those involved.

[grahame]

Crossings such as this are safe when used and observed correctly. And that is a fact.

I'm going to have to completely agree with you there. Peoples driving standards have changed for the worse IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion). If the crossings were used correctly then there would never be a problem. People are in far too much of a rush nowadays.

If I were to walk down the road and got to a level crossing just as the lights were flashing. I'd not hesitate to wait until the train had passed ...

My highlight.   People's habits do change over times, but to a very great extent those changes are fostered in them by their surroundings and how others change their surroundings.   

I was struck by a group of younger people waiting at Swindon, waiting to board a train headed west.    Train arrives in, and they just stand there waiting for the doors to open for them.  In olden days, it would have been natural when catching a train to open and close the doors yourself, but these days people simply aren't in the habit of doing so, and the train that had turned up was a very old one of the only remaining common type that's "DIY".  I don't think that's a safety issue at all, but it illustrates how people's habits and knowledge changes based on what's commonplace.

Looking back 50 years and a couple of days, before Dr Beeching, there were many more railways and a lot of them were much more local in nature.  And many of these lines had level crossings a-plenty.   So drivers were far more likely to come across them, use them, and be familiar with what they did and how they worked.  I don't have any old statistics, but I do wonder whether the very increased rareness of them intrinsically makes each remaining one all the more dangerous?

[ellendune]

Looking back 50 years and a couple of days, before Dr Beeching, there were many more railways and a lot of them were much more local in nature.  And many of these lines had level crossings a-plenty.   So drivers were far more likely to come across them, use them, and be familiar with what they did and how they worked.  I don't have any old statistics, but I do wonder whether the very increased rareness of them intrinsically makes each remaining one all the more dangerous?

If you look back that far then then we are talking of large wooden gates that provided a full barrier and were operated locally. Unlike some crossings today the signals were not cleared until the gates were shut. The gates would threfore have been shut for much longer.

[eightf48544]

A couple of points in answer to Grahame's

Looking back 50 years and a couple of days, before Dr Beeching, there were many more railways and a lot of them were much more local in nature. 

My impression is that many people imvolved in crossing incidents now are local and are fully aware the crossing is there.

I don't have any old statistics, but I do wonder whether the very increased rareness of them intrinsically makes each remaining one all the more dangerous?

I would suggest that level crossing incidents have been around since level crossings were first built. In my first job at Waterloo I had to file all incidents and the by far, the two places with the most incidents, which both conicedently involved cars, were the level crossing at Sunnigdale on the the old A30 (pre M3) where cars were everlastingly hitting the gates and secondly Weymouth Quay where carelessly parked cars were regularly hit by trains.

I would suggest that in both places, unlike today it would be mostly strangers to the area that were caught. You have to admit that the Suningdale level crossing can catch you by surprise being in the middle of long straight and the trains come out from behind building plus in the sixties there were no flashing lights. Hopefully the locals in Weymouth would  know not park too close to the rails.

Not on rail although it could have been we were  cruising the Stainforth and Keadby canal which runs parallel with the railway from Doncaster to Grimsby, being flat country most local roads/tracks have both a level crossing over the railway and a lift or swing bridge over the canal.

My mate had just started the mechanical mechanism to raise one of these bridges when a car came tearing over the level crossing and straight on to the rising ramp which fortunately was not yet at too steep an angle.  Good job there is an emergency stop otherwise the  car might have been considerably damage sliding down the ramp. It was just like in the Dirty Harry film??

Now the thing is the driver must have been local as if you were lost, and you really would be lost to get there, you'd hopefully be more careful.

Which leads me another thought perhaps sat navs should have warnings when approaching a L/C, similar to that which I believe they are trying to do for low brigdes to prevet strikes by tall vehicles.

Something to ponder, if the crossing on the A5 with the Gobowen Oswestery is ever bought back into use how long will it be before there's an incident.

[IndustryInsider]

I was struck by a group of younger people waiting at Swindon, waiting to board a train headed west.    Train arrives in, and they just stand there waiting for the doors to open for them.

I had to come to the rescue of a middle aged American couple at Slough last year when they started panicking about trying to open the door of a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) from the inside.  I told them to open the window and use the outside handle to which they were hugely over-grateful in that American kind of way - and they then asked how much money was saved in building a modern train like that without automatic doors. 

[inspector_blakey]

and they then asked how much money was saved in building a modern train like that without automatic doors. 

Off topic...

Utter cheek! For about 6 months last year I commuted daily on the Philadelphia "regional rail" system that was still using some old Pennsylvania Railroad relics from the 1950 and 1960s. Even on the more modern stock, doors were opened locally by the conductor at many stations (in general those with ground-level platforms that required the door to be opened *and* a trap door to be lifted giving access to the steps down from the car), and this often seemed to follow no rhyme or reason. If you didn't keep your wits about you it was very easy to find yourself waiting to leave the train by a door that wasn't opened at that stop on the whim of the train crew, as plenty of infrequent travellers fond out to their cost..