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Tuesday 10 Aug 2004

CASUAL WORKERS WARNED ABOUT THE DANGERS OF LEVEL CROSSINGS

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Casual workers, who are employed by farmers in greater numbers during the summer season, are being warned by Network Rail of the importance of knowing how to use farm crossings over railway tracks. Network Rail and the British Transport Police have jointly produced a multi-lingual leaflet, “The Cross Track Code”, aimed at itinerant workers who are often employed as fruit and vegetable pickers during the British summer. It spells out in nine different languages simple instructions for the safe use of farm crossings and those on private land. Network Rail’s level crossings risk control co-ordinator, John Whitehead, said: “Abuse and misuse of level crossings are one of the main causes of accidents on the rail network.  We are doing all we can to reduce the risk of a tragic accident befalling casual workers who may be unaware of the dangers of rural level crossings.  We have supplied copies of the “The Cross Track Code” leaflet to farmers and land-owners who have railway lines on their property, and have asked them to make sure all workers are aware of it.”             Many farmers have railway lines cutting through their land and these are reached by what are known as ‘occupational crossings’. They are not the same as those on main roads. They tend to be unmanned crossings where the ‘road’ user opens and closes the gates to allow them to cross. - more - Level – 2             In some instances there are telephones at the crossing and these are connected to the nearest signal box. If there is a telephone at the crossing, it must be used to contact the signaller to get permission to cross the railway line. Once safely across, the signaller must be called again to tell him the crossing is clear.