GWR fined £1m after death from leaning out of droplight window

Great Western Railway has been fined £1 million and ordered to pay more than £78,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaches of health and safety law following the death of a passenger who put her head out of an open train window. The victim, 28-year-old Bethan Roper of Penarth, died on the evening of December 1, 2018, after a London Paddington to Exeter service left Bath Spa and passed through the Twerton area toward Bristol Temple Meads.

An investigation by the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, found that Roper leaned out of a droplight window on a train travelling at about 75 miles per hour and struck an overhanging tree branch. A postmortem recorded head injuries as the cause of death, and an inquest heard toxicology results showing a blood alcohol concentration of 142 mg per 100 ml, nearly twice the legal drink-drive limit.

The ORR prosecuted GWR after concluding the company had not adequately managed the known risk posed by droplight windows, which are found on trains with slam doors and can be lowered to open. The regulator said the Rail Accident Investigation Branch had issued safety recommendations in May 2017 following a similar fatality near Balham in...