Woman, 28, killed by tree branch as she leaned out of train window, report finds

Bethan Roper died while leaning out of a moving train and being struck by a tree branch, according to an inquest into her death.
PA
Bonnie Christian16 October 2019

A woman who suffered fatal head injuries while leaning out of a train window was killed when she hit a tree branch, an accident report has found.

Bethan Roper, 28, had stuck her head out the window of Great Western Railway train near Twerton, Bath on December 1 when she was struck while the train travelled 85mph.

A preliminary report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch found that a yellow “caution” label above the door said “do not lean out of window when train is moving.”

The door was fitted with an opening window to enable passengers to access the handle, which was on the outside.

Miss Roper was on board the London Paddington to Exeter service while returning to Penarth, South Wales from a Christmas shopping trip with friends.

The RAIB said it would examine the measures in place to "control the risks from persons leaning out of train windows," after the death of 28-year-old Bethan Roper.
PA

The incident happened at 10.04pm and she was pronounced dead at Bristol Temple Meads station shortly after 10.10pm.

Miss Roper worked for the Welsh Refugee Council charity and was chairman of Young Socialists Cardiff.

Her father, Adrian Roper, 63, released a statement after her death saying his daughter "enjoyed life to the full whilst working tirelessly for a better world".

The RAIB said it's full investigation would examine the measures in place to "control the risks from persons leaning out of train windows, including the threat from vegetation".

In August 2016, railway fanatic Simon Brown, 24, was killed while leaning out of the window of a Gatwick Express train near Balham, south London. His head hit a signal gantry at 61mph.

In its report, the RAIB noted that a yellow warning sticker on the door was in a "cluttered environment" among other information signs, and recommended that train companies should do more to stop passengers from putting body parts out of windows.

In November, public sector company Network Rail was asked by rail minister Andrew Jones to set out a plan for how it will do more to protect biodiversity during tree felling.

This followed criticism over the amount of trees being cut down in some areas.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in