Media centre

Monday 3 Nov 2008

MOTORISTS IN WEST COUNTRY DICING WITH DEATH AT LEVEL CROSSINGS

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

Motorists in the West Country are risking their lives and those of others according to new figures revealed today by Network Rail. An incident of level crossing misuse involving motorists occurs every week, some of these incidents are caused by motorists ignoring warning signs and lights or weaving round barriers at level crossings.

Between January and September this year, there were more than 150 reported incidents of level crossings misuse across West Country. A third of those incidents involved a vehicle and five near misses, whereby road vehicles have narrowly avoided a collision with a train.

But these were the only ones recorded - the true figure is much higher.

Shockingly, Britain is on course for a four-year high total unless motorists stop running the risk.

The warning comes as Network Rail launches a new hard-hitting TV and radio advertising campaign that illustrates in graphic detail the tragic consequences of misusing level crossings by both motorists and pedestrians. The commercial, which was partly filmed at a level crossing on the Forest of Dean railway in Gloucestershire, will be aired across Britain.

Chris Fuoco, area general manager, Network Rail commented: “Level crossings are safe, but tragically it is unsafe driver behaviour that causes accidents and deaths. Every week three motorists risk their lives and those of others by abusing level crossings. We have a simple message to all: don’t run the risk.”

The work on this campaign is running in parallel with other Network Rail and industry initiatives to minimise the safety risk at level crossings. These include working with local authorities to look into alternatives, including flyovers, tunnels and footbridges, and researching into new technology to automatically detect obstacle on the railway line