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A major rail operator, Great Western Railway (GWR), has been fined £1 million for health and safety breaches following a fatal incident in which a young woman suffered a fatal injury after placing her head outside a droplight window.
Bethan Roper, 28, died on a GWR train near Twerton, Bath, on December 1, 2018, after her head struck a tree branch.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), the industry regulator, brought the prosecution against GWR, asserting that the company was aware of the risks associated with droplight windows but had failed to implement safety measures identified in a risk assessment conducted two months prior to Ms. Roper’s death.
GWR pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching health and safety law, resulting in the fine and an order to pay £78,000 in costs.
Richard Hines, the ORR’s chief inspector of railways, stated, “Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Bethan Roper.
“This preventable tragedy underscores the critical need for train operators to proactively manage risks and swiftly implement safety recommendations to ensure passenger safety.”
In a statement to BBC West, GWR said: “Bethan Roper’s death was a tragic incident, and our thoughts remain with her family and friends.
“We accept the judge’s decision and remain committed to continuously improving passenger and colleague safety across our network.
“The judge acknowledged our strong safety record both before and after this incident, and the safety of our passengers and colleagues remains our highest priority.”
Ms. Roper, from Penarth, Wales, worked for the Welsh Refugee Council, served as a Unite union convener, and chaired the Cardiff West branch of Socialist Party Wales.
At the time of the incident, she was returning home from a Christmas shopping trip in Bath and was intoxicated, according to a 2021 inquest.
Investigators at the inquest determined that a yellow warning label above the window, which read “Caution do not lean out of window when train is moving,” was an insufficient deterrent.
Ms. Roper’s death echoed a similar incident in 2016 near Balham, south London, prompting the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) to issue safety recommendations in May 2017.
GWR produced a written risk assessment in September 2017, which identified droplight windows as one of the most significant passenger safety risks.
The ORR deemed the assessment insufficient and communicated its concerns to GWR.
Despite this, the assessment was not revised, and the risk mitigation actions outlined by GWR were not implemented before the fatal accident in 2018, according to the ORR.
Since Ms. Roper’s death, measures have been implemented across the rail industry to prevent passengers from leaning out of droplight windows.
Trains with such windows have either been withdrawn from service or retrofitted with engineering controls to prevent windows from being opened while trains are in motion.
The ORR has expressed its support for the actions taken by GWR and the broader industry to mitigate these risks.
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