Dicing with death on dangerous railway crossings

A jogger wearing headphones, youngsters playing chicken and a mobility scooter user stuck on the tracks are among the causes of dozens of near-misses at level crossings, Network Rail has revealed. Phil Hayes reports...

Acatalogue of terrifying nearmisses reveals how disaster is regularly averted at level crossings throughout the Canterbury district and Faversham. Network Rail has released details of 36 close calls in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers, with a mobility scooter user trapped on the tracks and a jogger wearing headphones among those narrowly avoiding tragedy. Other incidents include a train driver who slammed on the brakes to narrowly avoid a person laying across the line, and two boys almost hit as they played chicken. The worst place for nearmisses is Tonford in Thanington, with five reported in as many years.

Last June a mobility scooter became stuck on the crossing, causing the driver to apply the emergency brake. An incident report reads: “The driver stated that the scooter was pushed off the crossing just in time for the train to miss it.”

In February last year, Tonford was the site of another close call when a driver hit the emergency brake to avoid hitting an elderly pedestrian. A mobile operations manager attended and found some signage had been obscured by foliage. Residents recently called for improved safety measures at the site after several near-misses.

The crossing has no warning lights despite some trains passing through just seven seconds after first coming into view. But Network Rail says there are no plans to make changes.

There have been three nearmisses at the Whitehall crossing, near Hambrook Marshes, include two “male youths playing chicken” in August 2017.

At Frognal Farm in Teynham in January 2018, a runner wearing headphones “jogged onto the crossing in front of the train before jumping back as the train driver sounded a warning”.

Just months earlier, in October 2017, a van driver was hospitalised after he collided with a Javelin high-speed train at the same crossing.

A year later, 20 passengers were led to safety after a train collided with a car at Frognal Farm.

In another troubling incident a person laid down on the tracks at Union level crossing in Faversham.

“The driver applied the emergency brake, stopping short of the person, who then got up and walked away,” the report from August 2014 says.