Motorists jump railway line red lights
Tuesday 23rd February 2010, 11:48AM GMT.
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Drivers are continuing to dice with death by jumping red lights and racing through safety barriers at a railway level crossing in a Shropshire town, transport police revealed today.
More than 50 motorists have been prosecuted for breaking the law at Wem in the last five months.Today British Transport Police (BTP) launched a crackdown and released CCTV footage showing a succession of drivers blatantly ignoring the red lights and speeding over the crossing.
The footage shows one impatient driver overtaking another who had stopped at the crossing, taking a huge risk by racing through the crossing as the safety barriers came down.
Police said many had been fined and had penalty points put on their licences – but warned the result of taking such risks could become much graver.
Sergeant Karl Anderson, of BTP, based at Shrewsbury, said: “If you jump a red light at a level crossing there is every chance you could be struck by a train weighing anything up to 2,000 tonnes which could lead to catastrophic consequences.
“It takes up to two kilometres for a train to come to a halt in an emergency.
“We are not talking about people sneaking through when the lights have just started to flash amber, the video evidence shows drivers are going over the crossing three or four seconds after the lights have changed from amber to flashing red.
“Some have even gone through as the safety barriers have started to come down.
“They continue to take huge risks in an attempt to save themselves a few minutes.”
In August 2009 BTP and Network Rail launched a crackdown on offenders at Wem after figures showed 69 motorists were caught on camera breaking the law at the site between April and August 2009.
Since the campaign to educate drivers, 53 motorists have been prosecuted for breaking the law at Wem since August 2009.
Last April Network Rail invested £10,000 installing cameras at Wem after fears that a growing number of motorists were prepared to take a risk on the crossing.
By Suzanne Roberts
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stupid drivers should be banned never mind fined. I suppose at least the camera costs will be recouped very soon.
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It’s Wem, bad drivers are everywhere!
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MOst of the footage is of the same cars seen crossing just from different camera positions! However, it is still a very stupid thing to do.
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Why dont they make the barriers longer, to block both sides of the road, save on the cost of cameras.
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The drivers who do jump the lights should be given a 6 month ban. fine and 3 points.
They then might get the message.
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Ban them all together,there not only putting themselves at risks but the passengers on the train and possibly the other people in their car
Their kids possibly
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I saw nothing dangerous in the video.
But maybe the solution is to start dropping the barriers as soon as the red lights start signalling?
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@winja: a better solution would be to reduce the delay and drop the barriers only as the train is very close. after one or two incidents people will be more cautious.
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I know this is about Railway crossings but is there any chance we can highlight temporary traffic lights in this aswell, because i was at the ones in madeley yesterday and by the time i’d finished waiting for the usual red light jumpers to come through ( buses and taxis included ) our light had gone back to red..
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marco said:
“a better solution would be to reduce the delay and drop the barriers only as the train is very close. after one or two incidents people will be more cautious.”
I’m inclined to agree, marco.
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The reason that there is a big delay between the barriers going down and the train arriving is that the signaller needs to ensure that the crossing is clear before allowing trains over it – these type of crossings keep the train signals at red until the barriers are down and the signaller has pressed ‘crossing clear’. To avoid slowing the trains down, the train is still at full normal braking distance away when this happens. This is for safety of crossing users. The delay between red lights showing and barriers coming down is to allow pedestrians to exit the crossing.
The alternative is the AHB, which only has half-barriers to allow exit, where trains can arrive only 25 seconds after the red lights showing.
The drivers in the video were not at risk of being hit by a trains. However, they are at risk of having barriers hit them and police prosecution for not obeying a stop signal. If they did hit the barriers, they are also at risk of prosecution for obstructing trains and/or causing delay to train services, as trains would have to be stopped and would only be allowed over the crossing at extreme caution. The motorists may also be sued by Network Rail to recoup the cost of repair to the crossing barriers.
So: They wont get hit by a train, but they may well get fit by a very big fine or fines and police prosecution, and they are still being quite stupid.
Re the video, yes, it is quite annoying how they kept showing you the same thing from different angles, and even repeated one you’d already seen at the end. I nearly turned it off!
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close crossing for safety reasons (temporarily/1 month),if this fails close crossing permanently.
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