Prosecuted GWR handed £1m fine for 'preventable tragedy' on train

THE West's main rail company GWR has been fined £1million for not doing enough to prevent the death of a passenger who was killed when she looked out of an open window on a train between Bath and Bristol.

- Tristan CORK

Bethan Roper, from South Wales, was on her way back from a Christmas shopping trip with friends in Bath when her head hit a tree branch on the line as the train went through Twerton. The rail regulator found GWR had been told to address the dangers posed by allowing train door windows to open when the train was moving, but had not acted on its own safety recommendations in the months and years before Bethan's death.

The rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), prosecuted GWR, and the First-owned company pleaded guilty to breaches of health and safety law. The punishment for the company is a fine of £1million, and an order to pay more than £78,000 in costs for the investigation and prosecution.