Safer bridges save lives

This ludicrous figure looks like the work of Whitehall's department for reassuring statistics. You may remember their previous fear-soother: how the risk of BSE being transmitted to humans was "minimal", and that the floods of 1999 were a once-in-a-century occurrence.

In fact, the Great Heck guesstimate comes courtesy of the Health and Safety Commission's report. It is meant to convince us that the Selby rail disaster was a one-off.

This in itself is arguable. Certainly the freakish chain of events that led to collisions between a Land Rover, an express train and a freight train will never be repeated.

But cars regularly leave the road and end up on railway lines. And people are killed as a result.

Earlier this month, the Railway Group reported that about 70 road vehicles wind up stuck on railway tracks each year. And the HSC's own report says cars have been hit by trains, causing fatalities, five times in the last ten years.

Every train crash highlights a problem which needs fixing. The tragedy at Great Heck revealed the shockingly inadequate safety measures on many road bridges that cross railway lines.

On some bridges, all that prevents a car from careering down a railway embankment is careful driving, good fortune and a barrier made of orange netting.

As road and rail traffic continues to increase in volume and speed, the chances rise of another terrible calamity.

Yesterday's HSC report downgrades the risk. Fortunately, North Yorkshire County Council is pressing on regardless with safety upgrades.

While the HSC worries about wasting resources, the council recognises that this is "a public confidence issue".

Too often in the past, railway safety lessons have not been implemented because of the expense. For the sake of today's passengers, and in memory of those who died at Great Heck, improvements to Britain's road-rail bridges must be made a priority.

Updated: 10:43 Tuesday, February 26, 2002