A railway company of Englandin United Kingdomyou must pay 1.25 million dollars Americans for violating health and safety laws. The fine occurs after the death of a young passenger who suffered a fatal injury When your head appears through a window.
Beethan Roper28 years old, died on December 1, 2018. The worker of the Welsh Council of refugees and union leader returned home of a Christmas shopping trip in Bath, a city in Ceremonial County of Somerset, in the southwest of England.
The incident occurred in a formation of Great Western Railway (GWR) nearly Twertonin Bath, when his head hit against the branch of a tree.
Bethan Roper died after a tragic accident: he pulled his head through the window of the three and hit the branch of a tree. Photo: Great Western Railway (GWR).As reported by BBC2021 forensic research determined that Bethan was under the influence of alcohol When he approached the train. The investigation indicated that the yellow warning label said «caution not to look out the window when the train is moving» It was not a sufficient deterrence.
The regulator of the Railroads and Roads Office (ORR) led GWR to trial and The company declared itself guilty of two charges of breach of the Health and Safety Law. In addition to the fine of one million pounds -1.25 million US dollars -GWR was ordered to pay 78,000 pounds sterling (105,120 US dollars).
Guilty British railway after passenger death by train
The ORR argued that GWR was aware of the risk presented by the fall windows. Two months before Bethan’s death, GWR had performed a risk assessment where steps were identified to address the problem, but these had not been implemented before the accident.
The Bethan tragedy echoed a similar incident occurred in 2016 near Balham, south of London. After that previous incident, the Railway Research Branch (RAIB) He issued security recommendations in May 2017.
GWR had produced a written risk assessment in September 2017, which determined that the fall windows were one of the safety risks for the most significant passengers. However, the orr considered that this evaluation was insufficient and wrote to them expressing their concerns.
However, the evaluation was not reviewed and The actions that GWR had planned to reduce the risk were not implemented before the fatal accident of 2018.
The company declared itself guilty of two charges of breach of the Health and Safety Law. Photo: Great Western Railway (GWR).Richard HinesChief Railroads Inspector of Orr, regretted that Bethan’s death was a «preventable tragedy» and stressed the need for rail operators to manage the risks proactively and act quickly in the face of security recommendations.
GWR communicated a BBC West that accepts the judge’s decision and that «remains committed to the continuous improvement of security.»
From the death of Bethan Roper, Measures were implemented throughout the railway industry to prevent passengers from looking out for this type of windows. The trains with fall windows were removed from service or equipped with engineering controls to prevent the windows from opening while the train is moving.
