No excuses for rail risk motorist
A motorist caught on camera driving over a railway level-crossing against the stop signs has admitted the offence - but insists he was not deliberately trying to jump the lights. Steve McCormick, 29, of Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, told magistrates: “I haven’t really got an excuse, but I didn’t intentionally race through or anything like that.”
McCormick said as he came down Farleigh Hill from Tonbridge Road towards the crossing just before East Farleigh Bridge, last August, he saw the red lights flashing and his first instinct was to brake.
But he said: “Then I saw the barriers were upright and they juddered and stopped. I thought they had just re-opened so I let my foot off the brake and rolled through.”
McCormick, appeared at Medway Magistrates’ Court without a defence solicitor.
He later explained: “When you’ve done it and you know you have, having a solicitor next to you isn’t going to help.” Chairwoman of the bench, Nikki Brauer, gave McCormick credit for his early confession, and fined him £200, with £85 costs and £30 victim surcharge. He also had three penalty points added to his licence, which was already endorsed for a speeding offence.
Outside the court, McCormick, who buys, sells and repairs cars, confessed he felt lucky not to have had his licence taken away. He added: “If they had done that, I would have been in deep trouble.”
Only days before the case, Network Rail issued figures showing that 13 drivers had run the lights at the East Farleigh crossing in the past two months. The rail company is particularly concerned about safety at East Farleigh after an incident in 2015, when the gates were still being closed manually. Signalman Doug Caddell was closing the gates when he was struck by a car and had his neck broken.
A new automated system of flashing lights and full barriers was installed in March last year. Network Rail’s route director for Kent, Fiona Taylor, said: “I can’t believe I’ve got to say this, but the flashing red lights are there for a reason.
“There’s no excuse for not paying attention to them and the fact that some drivers are even swerving round closing barriers, when a train is on its way, is just astonishing.”