Rail crossing to close after teenager’s death
Last updated 12:25, Friday, 21 November 2008
AN unmanned railway crossing where a Haltwhistle teenager died could soon be closed, an inquest heard last week.
Network Rail has said it is planning to close the crossing at West Lodge, Blenkinsopp Hall, where 17-year-old Christopher David Walton was killed in January after being hit by a freight train.
However, the company has yet to reach agreement about the closure with landowners.
Coroner Eric Armstrong and a jury heard evidence from rail inspector John Tilley, who said the crossing had been sub-standard for a number of years.
He said Network Rail had known the crossing was sub-standard for a number of years, but had failed to act on the evidence.
It was in complete darkness at night, and the warning signs for pedestrians to stop, look and listen could not be read in the wet and dark conditions at the time of the accident.
He claimed that the crossing was unsafe, and he was in favour of closing it.
The inquest heard that Christopher, of Meadow View, Haltwhistle, had been delivering coal with colleague Gary Roberts to a house at West Lodge at 5.30pm on January 22.
The owner of the house had asked for an additional bag of coal and, as Mr Roberts went to his van to do paperwork, Christopher may have been standing on the crossing.
Mr Roberts said that he had heard the loud horn of the train, which caused him to turn to face Christopher.
He accepted that the noise and headlights of passing vehicles on the adjacent A69 may have confused Christopher.
Train driver Jeffrey Wood said in a statement that he tried to avoid hitting the youth by applying the brakes but Christopher seemed to ‘freeze’.
He said: “There was a young male in dark clothing on the crossing and he was looking across, and he never looked in my direction, so I immediately sounded the horn.
“The young male seemed to freeze and I could not avoid striking him.”
Tony Ward, a solicitor representing the Waltons, said after the inquest: “The family are concerned, naturally, and are devastated.
“The fact that a 17-year-old boy, who was in a job for a number of weeks for a small organisation, was hit shows that no-one gave a thought about the obvious dangers of someone carrying bags of coal in foul weather and pitch darkness. I think the possibility of installing miniature warning lights ought to be considered.
“If there were warning lights in place then the accident would not have occurred because the only way you would have known, in darkness, that a train was coming is by relying on the warning lights.
“If they cannot close the crossing, I think warning lights ought to be installed and that would prevent something like this happening again.”
If the possibility of closing it was not viable, he called for further improvements to be made for the safety of pedestrians.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.
