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Fatal accident at Grimston Lane level crossing

At 12:19 hrs on Tuesday 23 February 2016, a pedestrian was struck and fatally injured by a train on Grimston Lane footpath level crossing in Trimley St Martin, Suffolk.

The train was travelling from Ipswich to Felixstowe. The driver sounded the train’s warning horn soon after first seeing the pedestrian. The pedestrian raised his arm in apparent acknowledgment of the horn and continued to cross in front of the train.

It is not possible to be certain why the pedestrian started to cross the railway when he had insufficient time to do so. The RAIB has concluded that he was either unaware of the train at the time he decided to cross, or that he misjudged the time he needed.

He may have been unaware of the train because he did not look, possibly as a result of the skewed alignment of the crossing. On the other hand, it is possible that he was not in the best position to see the train when he made his decision to cross.

He may have misjudged the time he needed because he overestimated the time it would take for the train to arrive at the crossing, or he underestimated how long it would take him to cross.

The age and health of the pedestrian meant that he fell into the category of people considered, by Network Rail’s guidance, to be ‘vulnerable users’. Network Rail’s assessment of the user group for the crossing did not identify the need to make an additional time allowance for vulnerable users at the crossing. However, as the sighting time for approaching trains was sufficient even if such an allowance had been made, this was not causal to the accident.

The RAIB has made two recommendations to Network Rail. One relates to the importance of understanding and managing the effects of skewed alignment on the use of level crossings. The second relates to reducing the risk to vulnerable level crossing users in an expedient manner, as it upgrades passive crossings.

Additionally, the RAIB identified a learning point relating to the implementation of findings from recent RSSB research into encouraging pedestrians to make better crossing decisions.