The accident occurred at approximately 14:49 on Thursday the 21st of April 2022 when a pedestrian was fatally struck by an out-of-service passenger train on the Lady Howard footpath and bridleway crossing which is close to Ashtead in Surrey.

The woman had been using the crossing with her dog and pushing a wheeled trolley bag and began making her way across the railway just after a train passed and was struck by a second train travelling in the opposite direction. The train driver sounded the horn of the train on sight of the pedestrian and she responded to this by rushing forwards to the exit of the crossing but was not able to clear the path of the train before being struck.

The investigation carried out revealed that the pedestrian seemed to be unaware that a second train was approaching when she chose to make her crossing. No evidence has suggested that she was aware of the second train or that she had misjudged the time she had to make the crossing. It is believed that despite the pedestrian looking twice in the direction of the second train before starting to cross, the front of the second train was hidden behind the first train which was moving away on the line closest to her. Rail Accident Investigation Branch discovered that it was possible that the pedestrian had not recognised the possibility of risk in that the first train was hiding an approaching train.

A likely underlying factor to the accident was that Network Rail did not give effective extra risk mitigation at the crossing in spite of this risk being previously considered as unacceptable to users. Network Rail had planned to put in place miniature stop lights for the crossing but technological difficulties at the site meant that it could not be implemented before the accident took place. Little evidence is available to suggest that Network Rail considered effective options to reduce the risk in the meantime whilst the solution was advanced, however, additional warning signs for users and a camera to monitor crossing use were fitted.

Rail Accident Investigation Branch has made two recommendations to Network Rail:

• To address the risk to pedestrians at crossings similar to this type with issues arising from a second approaching train which is hidden from view by another train.
• The second recommendation focuses on implementing appropriate interim risk mitigations for level crossings which are currently waiting for solutions in the longer term.