Report 08/2025: Pedestrian struck by a train at Bourneview footpath crossing
RAIB has today released its report into a pedestrian struck by a train at Bourneview footpath crossing, London Borough of Croydon, 23 January 2025.
Bourneview footpath crossing (courtesy of British Transport Police).
Summary
At about 08:03 on Thursday 23 January 2025, an 11-year-old child was struck and fatally injured by a passenger train at Bourneview footpath crossing, near Kenley in the London Borough of Croydon. The train was travelling at about 50 mph (80 km/h) at the time of the accident. The pedestrian was walking to school when they entered the crossing as the train approached. The driver of the train sounded the train’s horn and applied the emergency brake on realising that the pedestrian was starting to cross the railway. The pedestrian looked up in response to the horn but did not have time to react and move clear of the train before it reached the crossing.
The accident happened because the pedestrian did not perceive the risk associated with the approaching train, probably because they were distracted by their mobile phone.
RAIB found that the design and construction of the crossing did not change the pedestrian’s perception in two respects. Bourneview footpath crossing is a passive crossing, which was not fitted with active warning systems at the time of the accident. This is a probable causal factor. It could also have been made more obvious to pedestrians that they were entering a potentially hazardous area. This is a possible causal factor.
Possible underlying factors in this accident were that access to information relating to safe use of level crossings for schools and parents is not sufficiently widespread and that Network Rail’s guidance for risk assessments at level crossings did not recognise the different risk profile of younger people.
Recommendations
As a result of this accident, RAIB has made three recommendations, one to the curriculum setters for schools throughout the United Kingdom to work with railway infrastructure managers to introduce targeted and locally relevant railway safety lessons to pupils of all ages. There are two further recommendations, addressed to Network Rail, working with the Rail Safety and Standards Board. The first of these aims to make the dangerous area at level crossings more noticeable, particularly to people whose attention may be distracted. The final recommendation is to understand the risk profile of younger people and whether this warrants different approaches to risk mitigation at level crossings.
RAIB also identified a learning point to consider what action could be taken to alert users to the danger of individual level crossings where the provisions of its standards cannot be met, and to record these considerations in the crossing risk assessment.
Notes to editors
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The sole purpose of RAIB investigations is to prevent future accidents and incidents and improve railway safety. RAIB does not establish blame, liability or carry out prosecutions.
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RAIB operates, as far as possible, in an open and transparent manner. While our investigations are completely independent of the railway industry, we do maintain close liaison with railway companies and if we discover matters that may affect the safety of the railway, we make sure that information about them is circulated to the right people as soon as possible, and certainly long before publication of our final report.
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