Tributes to woman, 28, killed ‘leaning out of train window’
A HEARTFELT tribute has been paid to a “kind” woman who died from serious head injuries after leaning out of a train window.
Bethan Roper, 28, was killed on the Bristol Temple Meads-bound service on December 1 returning from a Christmas shopping trip with friends.
Police believe she sustained the injuries when she leaned out of a train window.
Ms Roper was chair of a young socialist group in Cardiff and worked at the Welsh Refugee Council at the time of her death.
Socialist Party Cardiff organiser Ross Saunders described Ms Roper as “no pushover”.
Yesterday he said: “Everyone who knew her will feel her loss. Beth was one of those rare people who was always kind and sincere. People remarked that she was always patient and helpful, always listened to your answer when she asked you how you were. She was no pushover either, though. She had steel, and was utterly intolerant of injustice.
“She was always instantly and unquestionably on the side of anyone suffering under any form of oppression, always ready to defend them, and willing to put her own shoulder to wheel to move things.”
Ms Roper was returning to her home in south Wales after spending the day at Bath’s Christmas Market with friends when she suffered the fatal blow to her head.
British Transport Police said its initial inquiries suggested Miss Roper may have been leaning out of a carriage window at the time.
Mr Saunders said he first met Ms Roper 10 years ago while she was in school. He said she helped set up a campaign in Penarth to save a local fire station facing job cuts.
Mr Saunders added: “We won that campaign, thanks in no small part to the campaign stalls she helped run, the support gig she helped organised and the other activity she engaged in.
“She was ever and an activist: fighting back against injustice was part of her DNA.”
Ms Roper was also active in the Cardiff Unite Energy and Services branch and was a delegate to Cardiff Trades Council.
Both organisations will “keenly feel her loss”, said Mr Roper.
She was also the chair of the Cardiff West branch of the Socialist Party.
Mr Saunders said: “She was only 28, but she had made her mark already on everyone around her.
“Beth lived her life fighting for a fairer, socialist world and fighting to build the revolutionary party, the political vehicle we need to create that world. In her memory we rededicate ourselves to that struggle.”
A spokesman for BTP said a day after the incident: “We were called at around 10.10pm following a report a woman had received serious head injuries while travelling on a train between Bath and Keynsham.
“Officers from British Transport Police attended along with colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police and South Western Ambulance Service, but despite their best efforts the woman died at the scene.”
The spokesman said the incident was reported to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
An inquest into her death is yet to open at Avon Coroner’s Court in Bristol.