NETWORK Rail has been fined £450,000 after it failed to install sufficient safety devices at a Herefordshire level crossing that led to the death of a county woman.
Jane Harding died after the car in which she was travelling was in collision with a train at Moreton-on-Lugg in Herefordshire in January 2010.
Signalman Adrian Maund raised the barriers after he thought that a Manchester to Milford Haven train had passed.
The 43-year-old, from Caswell Crescent, Leominster, who had worked in the signal box for 19 years, said he became distracted after a farmer called him on two occasions asking if he could take his sheep across the line at a crossing further up the track.
Once he realised that the train was approaching, he tried to lower the barriers and change the signals, but it was too late and train driver Andrew Robins was unable to avoid the collision.
Maund was today fined £1,750.
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