Network Rail has revealed unbelievable CCTV footage of a lorry reversing into a level crossing tearing off a barrier in the process.
The incident took place on Thursday the 7th of October at 12:30pm at Wedgewood Station level.
Credit: Network Rail
The footage shows the HGV slowly reversing over the railway lines as the barriers come down on top of the lorry. The knock-on effect of the incident saw disruption for passengers travelling on the West Coast mainline between Crewe and Stoke.
Luckily, Network Rail engineers were able to work at great speed to repair the damaged barrier, completing the work by 2pm that afternoon.
Drivers are always advised to:
- Never reverse over a level crossing
- Be prepared to stop at the crossing
- If the warnings activate, stop – unless it's unsafe to do so.
- Remain stationary until all the warnings stop.
- Check that the exit is clear before driving across.
- Understand the warnings (lights, barriers, alarms) – for more information about warnings download the level crossing for drivers pdf.
For further information on level crossing safety visit:
www.networkrail.co.uk/level-crossings-for-drivers/
Any witnesses to the incident are asked to get in touch with British Transport Police by texting 61016 or complete this online form.
James Dean, Network Rail's West Coast South route director, said: “It's almost unbelievable that this lorry driver decided to reverse over this level crossing, putting not only them but also the oncoming train and its passengers in danger.
“It's not advice we usually need to give but now we must also stress to motorists to never reverse over a level crossing as you won't see the warning lights. For those driving in the correct direction, our advice remains as it always has – although it might be tempting to jump the lights or race through the barriers – don't – please just wait.”
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That lorry driver had no alternative but to reverse over the crossing.
The problem lies a little further down the lane, where a height restriction has been removed. However a height restriction remains on the other side of a narrow bridge. There is nowhere to turn around so reversing is the only option.
The height restriction needs replacing ASAP and also needs to be moved further up towards the crossing where it would be more visible and there is plenty of room for HGVs to turn around.
I do hope this driver looses his job,, and his lcence, with the HGV part being taken away for good.
I live by a level crossing with manual gates on a main line, next to a signal box. The behavior of drivers is astounding , the gates are regularly left open and drivers stop in the middle to shat!
A lorry reversing at a level crossing in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. I bet it was a driver who hasn’t had any training or probably comes from abroad.
This incident epitomises the ‘cowboy’ road haulage industry. Hope the company responsible are fined substantially and their ‘cowboy’ driver is also prosecuted.
To me, it looks like the equipment used by Network Rail for engineering works look like the lighting equipment you use
So there is CCTV which has sight of the crossing but none which captures number plates?
Unbelievable in this day and age, would be a fairly cheap retrofit to have cameras that are in constant rolling record mode to local storage and trigger an upload or video saving by mobile phone link. Consumer grade tech available to do this. Worthwhile project to make that standard fitment to all level crossings to discourage abuse, targeted fitments would probably self fund.
expect a lot more of this sort of thing, now bojo has reduced the hgv license test procedure