Overview

• Great Western Railway pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches and was ordered to pay more than £78,000 in costs.
• ORR called Bethan Roper’s death a preventable tragedy after finding a 2017 droplight-window risk assessment was neither suitable nor sufficient and left unrevised before the accident.
• A similar 2016 fatality near Balham led the RAIB to issue recommendations in 2017 that were not implemented by GWR before the 2018 incident.
• Roper, 28, was struck by an overhanging tree branch after leaning from a droplight window on a Paddington–Exeter service near Twerton, Bath, at about 75 mph.
• Since the 2018 fatality, trains with droplight windows have been withdrawn or fitted with controls to stop windows opening while moving, and GWR says it accepts the ruling and remains focused on safety.