Kidwelly train crash farmer 'incredibly stupid', says judge

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

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

A judge has told a farmer who parked a trailer on a rail line which was hit by a train he was "incredibly stupid".

John Watkyn-James, 51, from Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire had admitted endangering safety on a railway at an earlier hearing at Swansea Crown Court.

Sentencing him to a 36-week suspended jail sentence, the judge said he had put the train, staff and passengers at risk when he parked to feed horses.

The Manchester to Milford Haven train was damaged but no-one was injured.

The farmer from Kidwelly must also carry out 200 hours community work.

Watkyn-James, of Limestone Hill Farm, parked his tractor next to the track at Kidwelly on 31 January with the trailer he was towing on the line.

The 08:30 service from Manchester crashed into it at about 13:30 GMT.

The court heard the farmer had parked the vehicle while he went to feed his horses.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said: "You put the train, staff and passengers at risk. You took a risk to save a few minutes."

As the train driver rounded a bend just before the crossing, he saw the trailer and applied the emergency brakes.

The driver then dived to the floor to protect himself, as he knew a collision was imminent, the court was told.

CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) filmed from the train cab shows the driver desperately trying to stop.

The train struck the trailer at 75mph and came to a stop about 100 yards further down the track.

None of the 20 passengers were injured, but the train was extensively damaged.

After the case, Sgt Steve Dawkins, of British Transport Police, said despite the trailer being made of plate steel, the speed of the train and the force of impact meant debris was spread over a large area.

"It is astounding that no-one was seriously injured or killed in this incident," said Sgt Dawkins.

He said the incident could easily have resulted in derailment.

"Crossings are designed to keep people safe - and, when used correctly, that is exactly what they do."

After the sentence, Watkyn-James told BBC Wales he was sorry about what happened and "luckily no-one was hurt".

The train cost nearly ^82,000 to repair, with further costs of ^84,862 from the train being out of service.

Mark Langman, route managing director for Network Rail, said: "Thankfully no-one was injured as a result of this incident. What happened was extremely dangerous and a stark reminder of the potential consequences of crossing misuse."

Arriva Trains Wales operations and safety director Peter Leppard said it had been a "reckless act".

"I am proud of the actions of the train crew, who dealt well with the aftermath, but they should not have found themselves in that situation," he added.

[inspector_blakey]

This whole story is weird... The railway line through Kidwelly is fairly busy (at least one train an hour in either direction, and I suspect for must of the day two an hour). From the train at this point it's obvious that you are travelling through several farms, and it beggars belief that one of the owners of those farms, whom I assume would be more or less aware of the train frequency, would park a tractor/trailer on the railway line expecting nothing to happen. Bizarre!

[Tim]

A testament to the safe design of the train that noone was hurt on board.  The driver certainly did the smart thing diving for the floor.

[Jez]

I assume the train that was damaged was a 175? How long was it out of service?

[Chris from Nailsea]

There are some pictures of the damaged train on the British Transport Police website, in their press release about this incident:

   

[inspector_blakey]

Damage to the 175 quoted as costing north of GBP80,000 to repair in those articles. I still don't fully understand the details of the accident but a report on Rail.co suggests a sequence of events in which the farmer opened both gates to cross (without telephoning the signaller for permission), but then as he began to cross the far side gate began to swing closed. The implication from the article is that the tractor/trailer was left fouling the railway line whilst the driver got out to re-open the far-side gate, at least as I read things. What's puzzling though is the mention that the first member of the train crew to walk back to the crossing apparently found the farmer feeding horses, which I can't really square with him being aware of the collision.

If the collision did indeed occur at 75mph as has been reported, it looks like the train stood up remarkably well to the impact.

http://www.rail.co/2011/10/31/farmer-who-caused-train-crash-given-suspended-prison-sentence/

[Hafren]

If the collision did indeed occur at 75mph as has been reported, it looks like the train stood up remarkably well to the impact.

It also says it stopped 100yds further down, making it even more impressive! Line speed there is 75mph, so looks like the article has confused the train's original speed with the speed at collision.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the report on the case on WalesOnline:

Prosecutor Miss Nicola Powell said: "After the accident he was found in his field feeding his horses.

"He was asked by a passenger if he was the driver of the tractor but he just shrugged his shoulders and mumbled.

"When asked if it was his trailer which was destroyed he said 'Yes but it is not much good now is it?'

His lawyer Frank Phillips said: "He had gone to feed his horses in a nearby field. He did not flee the scene."

Swansea Crown Court heard he had meant to drive through the gate to his field but it blew shut in the wind.

[grahame]

I guess now that the case is completed comment can be somewhat more open.   ... and  I find myself reading the various reports / comments and wondering if - as commented by the judge - his actions were "incredibly stupid" in that he crossed without securing the gate on the far side.   Gate blew closed in the wind.  He stopped to open it, trailer on line ... but train came and hit trailer.   He then fed his horses, knowing that he was likely to be "helping with enquiries" for a while and not wanting to leave them hungry.   That seems a more likely scenario than "parked on crossing while he fed his horses", doesn't it?

[inspector_blakey]

I suppose it sounds as if he could simply have been wandering around in some kind of shock following the incident as well. Anyway, pointless for me to indulge in any more speculation that I already have. A potentially very dangerous incident that fortunately didn't cause any serious harm to anyone, and justice has been served.

[JayMac]

From the Llanelli Star:

Kidwelly farmer speaks of crash hell

A KIidwelly farmer has spoken of the "hell" he has endured following a crash between a train and his tractor trailer.

John Henry Watkyn-James (pictured) says he is outraged to face an insurance bill of around ^100,000 for the smash. "They have blown it totally out of proportion," he said.

The incident happened on January 31 when he was driving a tractor and trailer over the Morfa Maen crossing in Kidwelly, to access fields where horses are kept.

But he left his trailer overhanging the tracks and a train came around the corner, ploughing into the vehicle.

The farmer later pleaded guilty to endangering the safety of persons using the railway and in September was given a 36-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, which he said he was "getting on with".

But Mr Watkyn-James has taken issue with the figure quoted for the damage to the train.

"There was very little damage on the train and there is no way that thing could have cost that much. The company have put in a claim way above what they said in court ^ a ^100,000 claim. It doesn't seem to add up."

The 51-year-old of Limestone Hill Farm, Crwbin described the damage as being contained to "a bit of fibreglass" on the side of the train, adding that he has been through "hell" since January.

"It's unbelievable what happened," he said. "I could never dream that something like that could happen to me. It's just one of those things ^ bad luck. It's hell.

"Sometimes you hear about other people and think it can never happen to you. But sometimes your luck isn't in."

Following the court case, a British Transport Police spokesman said: "The cost to repair the damaged train was ^81,991, while Arriva Trains were hit with further costs of ^84,862 accumulated through loss of service."

A spokeswoman for Arriva Trains was this week unable to give any financial details, but said: "In terms of the damage, the train needed a cab repair. That was quite an expensive repair to the fibreglass panels to the front of the train.

"It took a lot of work. It was out of service for about two months while that work was carried out."

[inspector_blakey]

Do you ever get the feeling that sometimes some people don't know when it's best not to seek attention and just keep quiet? Strikes me he got off remarkably lightly given that the consequences of his idiocy could have been far more severe.

Words fail me.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm. I was rather struggling for words, after reading that latest update, too ... 

"It's unbelievable what happened," he said.

No:

A judge has told a farmer who parked a trailer on a rail line which was hit by a train he was "incredibly stupid".