Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• Peter Cox, Polegate

  It is not obvious yet the circumstances of how the car got onto the Railway.
  There have been instances where people have turned onto the railway lines
  in error with Satnav being a feature. Difficult to understand why the car would be at this location as the Road only goes to a Pumping Station. These barriers are CCTV and protected by Railway Signalling. The Crossing must be viewed before signals are cleared. I think there has been a general modification of the working instructions for this type of crossing. It used to be the case that the lowering sequence was monitored by the Signaller to ensure nobody was on the Crossing whilst barriers lowered and there was a hold/pause function. I understand now the Signaller does not watch the lowering procedure but only checks the crossing before signals are cleared for the approaching train
  

• Tony Pearce, Reading

  Whilst not commenting on this case, I have managed to stall my Car on a very bumpy half-gate level crossing several years ago. Just as I started to go over the Bells and Lights went off, and I braked and stopped just where the barriers were to come down. So I tried to accelerate hard and quickly - and stalled. For about 10 very panic stricken seconds I tried to restart it and flooded the engine. I was just about to tell my passengers to get out and run (apparently we had 29 seconds from the moment the bells sound at that crossing if it was the fastest train at 100 mph) when it restarted. I have noticed that at Level Crossings virtually all cars slow down and the driver actually looks up and down the tracks to make sure that nothing is coming, - probably a habit you develop at every road junction.