Rail accident investigators have issued a ‘learning point’ for Network Rail after reopening their inquiry into the death of a pedestrian in Surrey.
The 85-year-old woman was struck by an out-of-service passenger train at Lady Howard footpath and bridleway crossing, between Ashtead and Epsom, on April 21 2022.
She had been walking on the crossing with a dog and pushing a wheeled trolley bag, and was considered unlikely to be a regular user of that crossing.
She started crossing the tracks shortly after a train from Horsham had passed, but was struck by a second train travelling in the opposite direction. She was apparently unaware that the second train was approaching when she made the decision to cross, as her view of it was blocked by the first train.
The busy route is used by South Western Railway trains from Waterloo to Guildford and Dorking, and by Southern Railway services from Victoria to Horsham. The crossing had no warning lights or barriers to restrict access.
Nationally, there are 1,336 crossings of the same type, with 154 on Network Rail’s Wessex region.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) published a report last year, but reopened its work when new evidence came to light.
It reported that Network Rail had “not provided any effective additional risk mitigation” at the crossing, despite having previously deemed the risk to users to be unacceptable. This was a “probable underlying fact
