A WOMAN was killed in a collision on a level crossing in Herefordshire last year because the signaller controlling the barriers had been distracted by a phone call from a farmer using an agricultural user-worked crossing, said the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.

Jane Harding, 52, (pictured) was a passenger in a car being driven over the crossing at Moreton-on-Lugg at about 10.30 on 16 January last year when it collided with the 08.30 train from Manchester Piccadilly to Milford Haven.

She died later in hospital and her husband, who was driving, was badly hurt. Another car was also given a glancing blow, but although its two occupants suffered from shock they were not physically injured.

The RAIB found that the signaller raised the barriers in error.

He had just been involved in a telephone call from a farmer seeking permission to move some sheep across the line at a nearby occupation crossing, and this had interrupted his concentration.

As a result he mistakenly believed that the train had already passed, and that it was safe to lift the barriers again. He first placed the signal protecting the crossing to danger, an action which freed the barriers.

The approaching train driver saw the signal change back to danger and applied his brakes, but it was too late to stop.

There was no interlock to prevent the barriers being lifted when a train was approaching if the signal was at red. Neither was there any industry requirement to formally consider the safety aspects of such interlocking.

The RAIB has made four recommendations to Network Rail. They include assessing the need for additional protection at level crossings like Moreton-on-Lugg and improvements to its processes for managing risk at crossings, and for determining when it should bring older signalling equipment into line with the latest safety standards.

Network Rail later said it would be installing a further layer of protection, known as approach locking, at another 64 crossings by 2014, most of them being similar to Moreton-on-Lugg. With approach locking installed level crossing barriers cannot be lifted if a train is about to cross, irrespective of the state of the signals.