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The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has fined a major rail operator £1m due to a breach of health and safety regulations resulting in the tragic death of Bethan Roper. Roper, a 28-year-old woman, suffered a fatal head injury after striking her head against a tree branch while on a Great Western Railway (GWR) train near Twerton in Bath on December 1, 2018. The ORR prosecuted GWR for failing to address the issue of droplight windows, despite having identified necessary safety measures in a risk assessment conducted two months prior to the incident.
Richard Hines, chief inspector of railways at ORR, expressed condolences to Roper’s family and friends, emphasizing the need for train operators to proactively manage risks and promptly implement safety recommendations to ensure passenger safety. Roper, who hailed from Penarth in Wales, had a noteworthy career working for the Welsh Refugee Council, serving as a Unite union convener, and heading the Cardiff West branch of Socialist Party Wales. Reports from an inquest held in 2021 revealed she was intoxicated during her journey back home from a Christmas shopping trip in Bath.
Investigators at the inquest highlighted the inadequacy of a warning label above the window cautioning passengers not to lean out while the train is in motion. The tragic incident involving Roper echoed a similar case in 2016 near Balham, south London, leading to safety recommendations issued by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) in May 2017. Despite a risk assessment conducted by GWR in September 2017 pinpointing droplight windows as a significant safety hazard, the ORR found the assessment lacking and communicated concerns to GWR, which were not addressed before Roper’s untimely death in 2018.
Following Roper’s tragic demise, the rail industry has implemented measures to prevent passengers from leaning out of droplight windows, either by withdrawing trains with such windows from service or installing engineering controls to prevent window opening while the train is in motion. The ORR commended GWR and the broader industry for their efforts in reducing risks associated with droplight windows and improving passenger safety
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