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news
Hilton Level Crossing (Mercia Police)“Arrested? I’m willing to take my chance”: Police seek cyclist who attempted to jump level crossing barrier
Police in Derbyshire are seeking a cyclist who repeatedly tried to force his way through a closed level crossing, even after Network Rail staff told him he could be arrested for attempting to jump the barrier.
A level crossing in Hilton, about ten miles outside Derby, was closed on Monday morning for three hours due to a technical issue.
Staff working at the crossing said that most road users politely heeded the closure, with one Network Rail worker explaining the reasons behind the problem to those who asked.
However, others weren’t so accepting of the delay to their morning commute, and vented their frustration towards staff.
> Cyclist/moron fined for forcing his way through level crossing and nearly being hit by train
One cyclist allegedly approached the closed pedestrian gate at the crossing to demand access across the tracks. When a member of Network Rail’s safety team informed him that he couldn’t cross, the cyclist apparently attempted to lift his bike over the barrier.
According to Mercia Police’s Safer Neighbourhood team (SNT), who responded to the incident, the cyclist was warned that he could be arrested if he continued to attempt to jump the crossing, prompting him to shout: “Arrested? I’m willing to take that chance.”
After the safety team member refused to let him through, the cyclist eventually conceded and rode away.
In a separate incident at the same crossing, a spokesperson for Mercia Police SNT said that another male cyclist directed a “vigorous hand gesture” towards one of their officers from the other side of the barrier, before “hurtling off” in the opposite direction.
An investigation is currently underway to identify the cyclist who attempted to jump the barrier and officers have asked anyone with information to contact Derbyshire Constabulary by calling 101 and quoting incident 189 of 21/03/22.
Mercia Police SNT also called on all motorists and cyclists to “adhere to road and rail closures. If you do not, you could endanger your life and the lives of others”.
> Video: Cyclist gets caught behind level crossing barriers in West Sussex
British Transport Police regularly publishes videos showing people, including cyclists, misusing level crossings, an offence which, notwithstanding risk of serious injury or even death, can lead to prosecution.
In 2018 George Caraska was fined £130 after pleading guilty to one count of disobeying a safety notice or sign and one of obstructing an engine using the railway by an unlawful act, after he was filmed forcing his way with his bike through a level crossing in southwest London.
The footage was shared widely online, including by the broadcaster Jeremy Vine, with Caraska telling one bystander at North Sheen station, who urged him not to cross the railway line, “I don’t fucking care, mate.”
Speaking after Caraska was sentenced, Assistant Chief Constable Robin Smith of British Transport Police said: “This has to rank as one of the most stupid, arrogant and dangerous things I’ve seen in my entire police service.
“Fortunately, Caraska was caught on camera and widely shared on social media by members of the public who were as horrified by his actions as we were.”
> Video: Level crossing cyclist almost hit by 80mph train in Kent
In 2020 Network Rail was forced to warn cyclists and other people to use level crossings properly after a man on a bike was almost hit by a high-speed train near Canterbury.
Footage released by the rail network owner showed the train driver sounding the horn and applying the emergency brake when he saw the cyclist riding across the tracks, with the train coming to a halt beyond the crossing.
After obtaining a PhD, lecturing, and hosting a history podcast at Queen’s University Belfast, Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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28 comments
It isn't clear from the story, but how far ahead of this closure was it signposted?
How far is the next point at which one can cross the railway line?
Angry Cyclist simply ignoring signposts at the diversion makes it on them.
But if there were no earlier signs and they've ridden miles up to that crossing to find it closed for three hours and NR staff telling them to go back ten miles and take the long way around, you can sort of sympathise with their frustration IMO.
Still not good to take it out on the NR staff, though, who are just doing their job (moreanmejobswurf).
@Dicklexic mentioned the diversion would be along a disused railway line cycle route, or around the roads via Etwall. I had a little look on google maps to get some numbers. The closed route is 3 mins, or 0.6 miles...
If you use the cycle route it adds 15 mins and 2.7 miles to the journey...
If you use the road it adds 17 mins and 3.2 miles to the journey...
(there is a fairly ok cycle path that negotiates the major road junction roundabouts and is off road all the way to the Etwall turn)
Thank you, hoarsemann. All of those journeys are easily doable, so I guess Angry Cyclist's frustration still comes back to my point about how far ahead of this closure it was signposted...
(Anecdote alert: I remember cycling all the way up through Bristol to get to the Clifton Suspension Bridge, this one time, and at the very last junction before the bridge there was a police presence telling everyone the bridge was closed and to go another way...).
It wasn't signposted until after the Police was called over Angry Cyclist according to the Facebook post linked to in the story. So assuming cyclist came from Eggington, double the first of Hoarsemann's post (cycle from junction, down to level crossing, then go back to the junction to make turnings for diversion. Obviously overall distance added won't be known for sure as we don't know the destination. He might have been going to one of the businesses just over the other side or actually would have headed up the passed the Derby by-pass.
I think I would cut them some slack on the signage, as this was an unplanned closure. Even if they'd put up a road closed sign further up, I would probably still have taken my chances and ridden past it!
It's not a huge diversion, but certainly annoying and enough to make you late for work. As you say, no excuse for being nasty to the staff though.
Whilst I understand that the good plods of Derbyshire have less to do now Haute COVID has passed and there are no hikers to harrass, but you have to wonder why they are wasting their time on this? .. the cyclist rode off, i.e. he didn't commit an offence.
But really, who in their right mind would wait for 3 hours by a roadside? If the jobsworths trying to prevent him crossing used their initiative they could have organised safe crossing whilst no trains were visible (we're not talking Maglevs here....you can hear and see them at a distance).
So abusing NR staff is not an offence?
Unmanned crossings have a sign telling large or slow moving traffic to contact the signal box before proceeding.
If network rail were on site, surely it wouldn't have been beyond the whit of man for one of the NR team to have checked for incoming trains?
After all ... If the NR team were working lineside they would have had to have spotters upline either side with radios so the team would have time to clear the tracks.
I wonder on if there was a clash of attitudes?
Especially for pedestrians, 5 miles is a fair bit of a detour.
Much less of a detour than having to go to the mortuary to identify the remains.
Much less of a detour than having to retire on Ill health grounds (post traumatic stress).
The railway is a seriously dangerous place, regulated with good reason..
"Speaking after Caraska was sentenced, Assistant Chief Constable Robin Smith of British Transport Police said: “This has to rank as one of the most stupid, arrogant and dangerous things I’ve seen in my entire police service."
Clearly not an aficionado of NMOTD.
Exactly what would the charge be for attempting to do something but failing and giving up?
"An investigation is currently underway to identify the cyclist who attempted to jump the barrier and officers have asked anyone with information to contact Derbyshire Constabulary by calling 101 and quoting incident 189 of 21/03/22."
Police have the time and money to investigate this while lacking the time to look at close pass videos of motorists breaking a black-letter law and sometimes nearly kiling cyclists?
Abuse of rail staff? He might not have crossed in the end but people shouldn't have to suffer abuse for doing their job.
I'm pretty sure attempting to break the law shows intent and is the same legally as actually breaking the law.
I thought you could actually break the law and subsequently admit you planned to do so in advance knowing that your course of action would break the law - and emerge without any punishment? As long as you thought it was the only sensible thing you could do. Or am I confusing this with running a (ferry) company?
A little googling suggests you are sort of right, except that summary offences, such as tresspassing on the railway, cannot be the object of a criminal attempt. So there would need to be a separate summary offence of intent to trespass on the railway (not sure if there is or not, my googling didn't get that far).
I don't know this area, and I'm not condoning his actions at all, but will just point out that what might be a 10 minute diversion for a motorist might be much longer for a cyclist, possibly including having to ride on unsuitable busy roads and climb difficult hills. Cyclists are rarely considered when roads are blocked and diversions put in place.
Or he could.... Edit... not wait, that was a stupid comment. But still...
No sympathy for this guy. If as reported then I think he's a prick.
Wait three hours? TBH, I agree on being a prick by continuing when told not to, however as the issue was the Road gates were closing without being signalled to AND there was Network Rail personal on site, why not let cyclists and pedestrians use the pedestrian gate that is there for that reason? It looks like the gates a manned anyway from that picture on streetview. I'm guessing the automated alarms in the hut was not working so they had to keep road gates closed to be safe, still the diversion was only 5 miles.
There is a possibility the ped gates might autolock when main gates are closed.
Ok, waiting for theee hours is wrong... I missed that.* I still think he's a prick.
*internet special. Don't read properly before slagging people off. Must try harder.
It looks like there is definately a mag-lock on the ped gates. So it's possible the ped gates had stuck shut. I can understand if that was the case, as permitting the cyclist to climb over would leave them open to an injury claim.
But if not, it just doesn't make sense. Most pedestrian crossings over a railway just ask you to stop and look before crossing. Looks like this one did back in 2009, no other measures other than just be careful:
"Or he could wait" at a level crossing, that was closed for 3 hours?
If the biggest danger is being arrested, then I'm with him. On the other hand, if the if the Network Rail worker had warned he could be hit by a train, maybe that would be different. As even the Network Rail worker could see that there was no real danger for a careful cyclist crossing the track, I don't see what the fuss is.
Yeah, my just wait comment was stupid, I'd missed that in.the article.
Though I don't necessarily think they could let people cross.... and the numpty in the article is good example why... people just won't follow instructions and then someone will get flattened at 70mph and everyone has an even longer wait/diversion
What were you expecting to be done exactly?
Hilton level crossing is in the Trent floodplain; there's a different level crossing open 800m to the East, but even if you had to make a much longer diversion, you'd struggle to find a steep climb.
Diversions are a pain (today, tired at the end of a long ride, my addled brain somehow misread a 1km diversion and turned it into an extra 3km) but that's not a good excuse for trying to jump a level crossing or abusing staff.
800m to east it maybe, but if for example he was coming FROM Hilton to get to say Willington or Egginton then it would be one hell of a detour around through Etwall to get back onto his route. Even if his bike was robust enough to take the cycle path along the old railway line (instead of on the road) it's a long way. I am not excusing his potentially abusive attitude, but you do have to question why there was no option to enable cyclists and pedestrians from crossing safely under supervision of the railway workers.