Man killed on railway line near Ivybridge - 24 April 2012

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From thisisdevon:

A man has been killed after being in collision with a passenger train near Ivybridge.

Police closed a section of railway track running alongside Exeter Road on the B3213 at around 5.48pm today.

British Transport Police, officers from Devon and Cornwall police, together with representatives of Network Rail attended the scene.

A black private ambulance was also at parked on Davids Lane.

British Transport Police confirmed the 17:23 First Great Western train service from Plymouth to Leeds was involved in the incident.

It is believed the man^s body was found below a single-vehicle road bridge at the top of Davids Lane.

A spokesperson for the British Transport Police said: ^We attended the scene close to Ivybridge Railway Station after reports a man had been hit by a train at 5:40pm.

Paramedics from South Western Ambulance Service also attended but the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

The incident is being treated as non-suspicious.^

Ivybridge Railway Station was closed to trains and the entrance to Davids Lane was coned off by police until 7.10pm.

The railway main line to and from Plymouth and Cornwall was affected.

A spokeswoman for Cross Country said: ^The 18:59 from Ivybridge to Plymouth was disrupted and alternative transport was offered.^

Transport Police said a file is being prepared for the coroner.

[devon_metro]

Apparently a young lad, shame.

[vacman]

Never knew FGW^▸ (First Great Western) went to Leeds? haha

[LiskeardRich]

Never knew FGW^▸ (First Great Western) went to Leeds? haha

And xc spokesman gave a statement for fgw...condolences to the victim and all involved

[bobm]

With due respect to those involved but what an awful piece of journalism. If you cannot even get basic details like the operator of the train right what hope is there that the rest is correct?

[The SprinterMeister]

Never knew FGW^▸ (First Great Western) went to Leeds? haha

It's a new open access route. Journalists are never wrong....
 

[grahame]

I'm not actually sure that the journalists got it wrong - they make it clear their reporting what the BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) told them, and they may have accurately reported that source which - in the first hours after the incident - is likely to be sketchy and still receiving information from the incident site.  Both dealing with the aftermath and answering the reporters as best they can.   We often forget, I think, just how much might have been happening at the time, and that the police, journalists, other emergency services are not as knowledgable about rail issues as some of our members here.  I'm grateful for the reports and would rather hear about them now that wait until after the inquest to be told anything at all in the interest of 100% accuracy.

[bobm]

Speaking as a journalist I partly agree with you Grahame but I was always told to be "right not first" so in cases like this when given which train was allegedly involved you take a look at the timetable and check.  After all I wouldn't want FGW^▸ (First Great Western) phoning me to complain.  The biggest problem is the lack of local knowledge.  With local papers often closing outlying offices and concentrating on a central point many journalists don't know the places they are covering as well as they did.  TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) and Radio have done the same.

[vacmanfan]

The main issue is that somebody unfortunately died, not what colour the train is....

[bobm]

To be fair I diid qualify my opening remarks with that thought.  However if organisations are going to report on it they might as well try to get the basic (and easily checkable) facts right.