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Shocking!!!

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syorksdeano

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http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...d_unconscious_at_yorkshire_crossing_1_3992959

A YORKSHIRE railway worker found slumped drunk and unconscious in his box while he was responsible for Europe’s second busiest level crossing has been jailed for three months.

A district judge heard that Peter Singleton, 29, was almost three times the drink-drive limit and more than seven times Network Rail’s drinking limit when paramedics were called to his cabin at the Crofton Crossing, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, last month.

Wakefield Magistrates’ Court was told that a colleague found Singleton on the evening of October 18 slumped and unconscious with a train waiting for permission to cross.

Singleton is an alcoholic with a range of health problems, the court heard, but District Judge Jonathan Bennett said he had no choice but to send him to prison.

District Judge Bennett said: “You held a very important and responsible job.

“The lives of literally hundreds of people were in your hands.”

Singleton, of Roger Drive, Sandal, near Wakefield, admitted at a previous hearing a charge of being unfit to work through drink or drugs while working as a gatekeeper on a level crossing.
 
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Tomnick

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I'm not sure which level crossing was involved here, but it sounds like the one across the Wakefield - Pontefract line giving access to Crofton depot. That's been the subject of an RAIB report in the past (incidentally involving some irregularity on the part of either the crossing keeper or the supervising signalman - can't remember which), and if I remember the background detailed in the report, it's actually a private crossing that used to be user-worked, but provided with a crossing keeper because of increased road traffic. Even so, I find it hard to believe that it's Europe's second-busiest crossing with a relatively small number of road movements to the works and little more than a DMU each way per hour!
 

185

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Not to worry. At least whilst drunk he didn't cause any trains to land on their side like

three did at the adjacent Crofton/Crunchton/Cr*pton Bombardier works. :)
 

theblackwatch

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65 trains a day crossing it according to Look North (which also quoted it being one of the busiest in Europe - so presumably this statement has come from some press release). As others have said, hardly the second busiest in Europe!
 
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