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Rail Deaths Caused By Network Rail Ignorance Network Rail's 'ignorance' and 'irresponsibility' has been condemned by train drivers' union ASLEF after an official investigation found the company 'did not properly understand' the risks posed by a level crossing where three people died. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report into the 29 September 2009 tragedy at Halkirk level crossing, Caithness concluded: 'Network Rail did not fully understand the risk at Halkirk crossing because they had not taken the records of previous accidents there into account. If they had done so, additional risk reduction measures, such as the provision of barriers, might have been justified.' "This amounts to irresponsibility verging on the criminal, and ignorance bordering on the insane,’ Keith Norman, general secretary of train driver's union ASLEF said. ‘It baffles me that anyone associated with the industry can fail to recognise the risks involved at level crossings, where one person a month has died for decades. Level crossings kill. Unmanned ones kill regularly. What is there not to understand?" He added that, "Every time there is an accident on an unmanned level crossing ‘a deeply distasteful game of pass-the-parcel of guilt begins. This report recommends a risk assessment of the crossing. I can save them a lot of trouble. They are all inherently unsafe. That is why we advise our members to slow down their trains when they approach them. What really maddens me is that we know the solutions: they are tunnels, bridges and in-cab technology to enable a driver to look further up the track than the eye can see. They are all available. But no one will put up the money to stop the carnage." Source: TUC Risks
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