Schools across the country are to be advised to include ‘targeted and locally relevant railway safety lessons’ in response to the death of a Year 7 Riddlesdown pupil earlier this year
Jaiden Shehata, the 11-year-old Riddlesdown schoolboy killed at a level crossing when on his way to school in January this year, was almost certainly distracted by his mobile phone at the time of the incident, and there was nothing at the footpath as it crossed the railway lines to get him to pay attention to crossing safely.
Fatal scene: the Bourne View level crossing
Those are the findings of a 38-page report from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch published this morning.
The RAIB report also makes a series of recommendations, although some changes to the crossing, at Bourneview path near Kenley Station, have already started to be implemented following the accident investigators’ initial findings during the summer. The crossing has been closed while the works are being conducted.
The tragic incident happened just after 8am on January 23. According to the RAIB report, the train was travelling at about 50mph.
The train had left Whyteleafe Station about one minute late, but it was already braking before the pedestrian crossing, on its approach to Kenley Station.
“The driver of the train sounded the train’s horn and applied the emergency brake on realising that the pedestrian was starting to cross the railway,” the RAIB said in its findings.
“The pedestrian looked up in response to the horn but did not have time to react and move clear of the train before it reached the crossing.”
Fatal findings: part of the RAIB report, published this morning
The RAIB report includes two key paragraphs, based on the investigators’ findings from the train’s on-board CCTV.
“Images from the train’s [CCTV] system show that the pedestrian was at this stage walking at a steady pace, looking ahead and down at a glowing object, almost certain to be the illuminated screen of a mobile phone in their hands. They had their coat hood pulled up over their head.”
And it says, “The train driver began sounding the train’s warning horn around 0.5 seconds after the emergency brake application, when the train was about 15 metres from the crossing and travelling at 53mph. The pedestrian briefly looked up, apparently in response to the horn, but they did not have time to react or move out of the train’s path… There is no evidence to suggest that the pedestrian was aware of the approaching train before the warning horn was sounded.”
Kissing gate: the RAIB report suggests that the pedestrian crossing requires more safety features
Network Rail’s most recent risk assessment of the location in May 2023 documented six near misses between November 2018 and February 2023.
There was a previous death, in March 2020, which was recorded as a deliberate act.
In their findings on the latest incident, RAIB found that “the design and construction of the crossing did not change the pedestrian’s perception in two respects. Bourneview footpath crossing is a passive crossing, which was not fitted with active warning systems at the time of the accident. This is a probable causal factor.
“It could also have been made more obvious to pedestrians that they were entering a potentially hazardous area. This is a possible causal factor.”
The RAIB also states that another underlying factor is the possibility that schools and parents had not had enough information about safe use of level crossings, and that “Network Rail’s guidance for risk assessments at level crossings did not recognise the different risk profile of younger people”.
RAIB has made three recommendations as a result of this accident, including to the curriculum setters for schools throughout the country to work with railway infrastructure managers to introduce targeted and locally relevant railway safety lessons to pupils of all ages.
The two other recommendations are directed at Network Rail and the Rail Safety and Standards Board.
“The first of these aims to make the dangerous area at level crossings more noticeable, particularly to people whose attention may be distracted. The final recommendation is to understand the risk profile of younger people and whether this warrants different approaches to risk mitigation at level crossings.”
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My sympathies are with the boy and his family, but also the driver who had no chance of avoiding the collision. Anyone walking along with their hood, staring at a mobile is in danger. If crossing over railway lines isn’t enough to make you look up, then I doubt anything will. It’s not just kids; I often have issues with adults staring into phones on pavements. Even a warning shout rarely works as they have earbuds blocking out the outside world. We need to educate everyone to be more aware I think.
I don’t know why this crossing is still open. On that line between Purley and Caterham, there are quite a lot of crossings but this is by far the most dangerous. There are road bridges under the railway, road bridges over the line, footbridges over the railway (some with ramps and some with steps), as well as two road level crossings. There may even be a ‘rabbit hole’ footpath subway under the tracks out in Surrey on the final bit to Caterham, but I haven’t seen that. This uncontrolled surface crossing should be replaced by a footbridge (with ramps) over the railway to use the slope down from Valley Road to Bourne View
Read the RAIB report.
My sympathies are also with the boy and his family, but I can’t see the logic of closing railway crossings when we can walk into traffic on roads wherever we please. The crossing had very clear warning signs and the driver even blew his horn to no avail, but even children have to be responsible and aware of their surroundings. Closing crossings like these would cause particular inconvenience for less mobile people who would have more difficulty in negotiating longer walks or footbridges.