Transport and Storage Sector
Network Rail admits safety failings in level crossing
deaths
Health & Safety news update 01/02/2012
Network Rail has admitted health and safety failings that
contributed to the deaths of two teenage girls at a level crossing
in Essex in 2005.
The rail company is to plead guilty to failing to carry out a
sufficient risk assessment, failing to properly control protective
measures at the Elsenham level crossing and failing to prevent
Olivia Bazlinton, 14, and Charlotte Thompson, 13, from being
exposed to the risks which led to their deaths.
The admission of guilt has only come after a sustained campaign
for justice by the girls’ fathers, who said that the guilty pleas
proved that the company had lied to them many times over the years,
by claiming that the girls alone were the only ones responsible for
their deaths.
Reg Thompson said, “In the aftermath of the accident, Network
Rail claimed the girls had acted recklessly and that somehow their
youthful exuberance led directly to their deaths, as if exuberance
itself is a crime.”
Network Rail’s defence counsel, Prashant Popat, said that the
company had already privately expressed regret to the families of
the girls and that the guilty pleas were a public
acknowledgement.
The two girls had waited at the crossing – which lies on a sharp
bend in the track – on December 3, 2005, when the red warning
lights were illuminated and the siren was sounding. They waited at
the unlocked wicket gates until a train had gone past, then opened
the gate to cross, despite the warnings continuing. They were then
struck by a Birmingham to Stanstead train and killed instantly.
Safety measures have since been installed at the crossing,
including tamper-proof automatic locks on the gates. Sentence will
be passed on March 15 this year.
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