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Over 40 car incidents at level crossings every week

Published 05 October 2018

Network Rail has launched a national campaign as new research reveals about 46 incidents involving vehicles take place at level crossings across the UK every week.

Six people have lost their lives in vehicles at level crossings in Britain in the past five years alone, with many more injured. The campaign aims to change driver's behaviour around level crossing by making them more aware of the danger.

Britain has the safest rail network in Europe, but the 3800 public and private road crossings across Network Rail’s 20,000 miles of track are among the biggest public safety risks.

The campaign coincides with a recent incident of a driver nipping through a level crossing red warning light during a live ITV News broadcast.

The incident was captured on camera as reporter Tanya Mercer was midway through explaining the dangers of railway crossings.

ITV News Anglia tweeted about the incident, saying, "A word of advice: While our reporter @tanyamercer is doing a live about the dangers of ignoring warning signs at level crossings, it’s probably not the best idea to jump a red light live on air."

Superintendent Christopher Horton of the British Transport Police replied to the Tweet asking for footage of the car that jumped the red light, as well as the car before it that went through the amber light.

The crossing in Westerfield, where the live report was broadcast, has recorded the most prosecutions for people skipping red lights, with 49 logged from January to December 2017.

Comments

John Savill on 7 October 2018

This reminds me of a story my driving instructor told me one Saturday when he had a pupil attempt to drive through the flashing lights at an unbarriered level crossing. The pupil associated it with pelican crossings where you can proceed on a flashing amber if it is safe.

Edited by John Savill on 07/10/2018 at 02:12

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