Elsenham rail death mum slams pair who dodged crossing gates

The mother of a teenager who was killed by a train has criticised the "stupidity" of people who were nearly struck at the same level crossing.

Olivia Bazlinton, 14, and Charlotte Thompson, 13, were hit at the crossing in Elsenham, Essex, on 3 December 2005.

Recently released CCTV footage showed two people climbing around fencing to avoid the locked gates, with a fast train narrowly missing them.

Tina Hughes, Olivia's mum, said she was "horrified" when she saw the video.

Ms Hughes said her daughter and her friend had made a "fatal error of judgement" when they walked through an open gate as a train was coming, and they were both killed.

It was "absolutely incredibly sad and traumatic", she said. An inquest jury ruled their deaths were an accident.

Network Rail was fined £1m in 2012 after admitting health and safety breaches. Three years later, an investigation found an automatic locking system at the crossing had failed at the time of Olivia and Charlotte's deaths.

Additional safety measures have since been put in place. A footbridge has been built and the gates are now locked by a member of staff when a train is coming.

Having seen the footage from April of the two adults, Ms Hughes said she was "horrified".

"One ran straight across, the other stumbled - and fortunately she did. She looked up and saw the train coming, because if not she would have been hit by the train without a shadow of a doubt.

"I went cold and [had] goose bumps and was very, very angry because these weren't children, they weren't making a mistake.

"They made a decision to walk around the trespass guards and on to the crossing knowing the gates are locked.

"They're locked for a reason - to protect people - and we fought for years to put locks on gates to protect people and to prevent people going through the horror we went through when we lost our children, so it was just awful to see."

Since her daughter's death, Ms Hughes has been campaigning and working with Network Rail to make level crossings safer, with more than 1,300 being closed.

However, she said in many cases more was needed and people needed to be aware of the dangers.

"I don't think people are ignorant, I think they're distracted by life. Phones, chatting to their friends, whatever it might be, but there are people who do very, very stupid things like these two women did.

"I say they were stupid because they walked around. If children watched that, they can think that's OK."

To mark International Level Crossing Awareness Day, Network Rail, supported by Ms Hughes, has warned people never to take risks on the railway.

British Transport Police has been contacted for comment regarding the April incident.

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