Train collision cows ‘knocked down barrier’ (From Bicester Advertiser)
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Train collision cows ‘knocked down barrier’
9:30am Friday 11th May 2012 in News
A HERD of cows hit by a train could have trampled down a trackside fence because they were spooked, investigators said last night.
Two hundred passengers were on the CrossCountry service between Oxford and Banbury when it hit the animals near Tackley.
Passengers had to wait for six hours on the train – the 2.45pm from Bournemouth to Manchester – until engineers checked it was still safe to run after the high-speed collision at 4.50pm on Wednesday.
Buses replaced trains between Oxford and Banbury for most of the evening.
A Network Rail spokesman said yesterday there would be no formal investigation of the incident.
He said: “The farmer believes the cows were spooked by the fact that their field was flooded.
“If a herd of cattle decides it wants to trample through a fence, there’s not much we can do about it.”
He added that recent scheduled inspections of the fence had all been carried out as planned.
He could not confirm how many cows had died in the incident.
l Yesterday trains on the line suffered further delays when a tree fell on the tracks just south of Lower Heyford at about 8.50am. It was removed at 10am.
Comments(8)
Englishman
says...
11:09am Fri 11 May 12
snert
says...
11:31am Fri 11 May 12
online_reader
says...
12:30pm Fri 11 May 12
Major Oxford
says...
12:52pm Fri 11 May 12
LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG
says...
12:34am Sat 12 May 12
King Joke
says...
7:50pm Sun 13 May 12
I can only assume he's pretty upset about losing twelve animals.
LORD PETER MACVEY 0X2 6EG
says...
4:19pm Mon 14 May 12
King Joke wrote:It will cost him a lot more when the compo claim goes in. Watch for the news. As any insurance broker will tell you "never admit blame" even if you have smashed into the back of somebody. I.E. Oi mate, why did you reverse into me like that, that is going to cost you.
In the 80s a train in Scotland hit a single cow, derailed and killed eight people - so for the farmer to be so blase about the chance of animals straying onto the line is pretty tactless.
I can only assume he's pretty upset about losing twelve animals.
snert says...
10:26am Fri 11 May 12