Railway Safety Information

Facts and Figures

73 people were killed following an accident on Britain’s railways in 2003. 6 of these were children under the age of 16. Although the total number of people killed has fallen over the last five years, the number of children killed has remained fairly constant.

The vast majority of those killed on the railways (60) are member of the public (not passengers), most of whom are trespassing on the railway. 5 of the 6 children killed were trespassing on the railway line when the accident took place, playing or taking shortcuts across the railway.

15 people (of the 60 mentioned above) suffered fatal accidents while at level crossings. Half of these fatal accidents were caused by someone being struck by a train on or near the train track.

In 2003 a further 273 people suffered major injuries, which is an increase of 11% on the figure for 2002 (243). 201 of these major injuries involved passengers, and the majority of them (186) took place on the station or platform. Over half of the major injuries result from slips, trips and falls or accidents using the stairs.

Major injuries involving trains usually take place when passengers are getting on or off a train (32 of the 70 major injuries involving a train happened when passengers were alighting from a train).
Although there were more serious accidents in 2003, fewer of them resulted in a fatality.
There were 615 near misses on the railway lines in 2002/03, 323 of these involved children under 15 years of age. Near misses could easily be fatalities and considering the number of these that are children, the number of children killed or seriously injured on the railways could be a lot greater than they are.
Railways are the second safest form of land travel in Great Britain (after buses and coaches) for passengers. The number of people accidentally killed on the railways (both children and adults) would be much smaller if people did not use the railway as a playground or footpath. 82% of those killed should not have been on or near the railway at the time of the accident.