CCTV: Lorry reverses into Stoke-on-Trent level crossing
Network Rail has released footage showing the moment a lorry driver reverses over a railway level crossing, ripping off one of its barriers in the process.
The CCTV was captured at Wedgwood Station crossing in Stoke-on-Trent at 12.30BST on Thursday 7 October.
The act caused disruption to passengers travelling on the West Coast main line between Crewe and Stoke-on-Trent, but engineers fixed the barrier by 14:00.
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."
Update 29th April 2022: British Transport Police later confirmed that following an investigation the case was closed and no further action was taken in relation to a dangerous driving offence as the driver was found not to be at fault.
Update 26th July 2022: On the 29th April we added an update note which explained that following a British Transport Police investigation the case was closed and no further action taken in relation to a dangerous driving offence because the lorry driver was found not to be at fault. Following a complaint that this raised further questions about the incident we approached British Transport Police for a second time.
They confirmed that officers received a report on 7 October of a vehicle crashing into the barriers of Wedgewood Level Crossing in Staffordshire. The driver was interviewed under caution and no further action was taken against him following the findings of this investigation, which confirmed no evidence of a criminal offence taking place.
They added that the driver had been travelling to pick up items in a car park at the other side of the crossing. However the car park gateway was too small for the vehicle to turn into and so the driver's only option to get off the crossing as soon as possible was to reverse, at which point the barriers were up. This is a manually operated level crossing and as he began to reverse the signaller put the barriers down.
Officers are confident the driver couldn't have behaved differently in the circumstances.
