Friday, May 12, 2017

Another near-fatality at North Sheen level crossing


Here's a candidate for the Darwin Awards.



Unfortunately, this level crossing is a known problem.


1. There's a long list of near misses, broken barriers, suicides or accidental deaths at this crossing, in Mortlake, in White Hart lane and Vine road -4 level crossings in about a couple miles or so.

2. There was a footbridge and Network Rail took it down in the 90ies, it was then reinstated a few years ago -but on the wrong side of the road (meaning if you're coming from the South side, you'd need to go up and down 4 times to get to the station, without ramps for prams or buggies and w/o side railings to take bikes up.

3. We live in a dense urban area, level crossings should not be. Period. 
Not only it's dangerous, but you can wait 15mn to cross. There are often huge queues along Manor Road, all the way back to Upper Richmond road on the South side and to Manor circus (A316) on the North side. Things are about to get much worse if the Stag Brewery in Mortlake gets redeveloped with 900 flats...

To your questions, I don't know who the chap is (no one seems to know him around here). He's certainly nearly won the Darwin Awards.

Including why it's an issue for emergency services, past accidents, etc.

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