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news
Teen cyclist rides across level crossing in Belgium (source: Infrabel)Dramatic video captures moment teen cyclist rides over level crossing in Belgium – and gets knocked off bike by train (+ link to video)
Dramatic video footage has emerged of the moment a teenage cyclist in Belgium rode across a level crossing when the barriers were down and was hit by a train – with the youngster luckily sustaining nothing more than a minor head injury.
The incident happened on the morning of Tuesday 7 November at a level crossing in Warvik, West Flanders, according to the Gazet van Antwerpen, whose report includes video footage of the 15-year-old boy’s close escape provided by state-owned rail infrastructure provider Infrabel.
The train hit the rear wheel of the youngster’s bike, and he was thrown to the ground, thankfully away from the railway track, and treated in hospital for a minor head wound; had he crossed a split second earlier, or not deviated slightly from his original line, the consequences would almost certainly have been fatal.
Mayor of Vervik Youro Casier told the newspaper. “I was informed of the circumstances. The cyclist ignored all signals: the bell, the red lights and the closed barriers. He's put himself in a very dangerous situation.
“The fact that he is only slightly injured is a blessing in disguise. I hope he recovers quickly and that this can be an important lesson for everyone. We should try to avoid such accidents as much as possible.
“Age plays no role in this,” the mayor added. “Every road user has their own responsibility. If you take such a risk, you are putting your life at risk. It still happens too often that closed level crossings are ignored.”
Antony Verschaeve, who owns a café near the crossing, said that people ignoring warnings at the level crossing was a common occurrence.
“That boy crossing the road on Tuesday morning is certainly not an isolated case,” he explained. “That happens here many times a day, cyclists and pedestrians. You would be amazed at the numbers.”
As we have regularly reported here on road.cc, in Great Britain, both Network Rail and British Transport Police often share footage of people, including cyclists, ignoring flashing lights and barriers at level crossings, using such clips to highlight the danger to which they are exposing themselves and reinforcing the need to wait until the train has passed.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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24 comments
Idiots gonna Idiot.
We had one who won a Darwin Award on a crossing near home. Chap cycled across a bridleway level crossing without looking, sporting earphones so he neither saw the train nor heard the hooter.
The level crossing is the East Coast Main Line.
Family went on a raher silly campaign blaming Network Rail for everything. I'm no fan of NR - especially their poisonous attitude on the legal requirement for an accessible service - but they are more sinned aganist on this one.
We now have a huge accessible horse bridge.
Just watch out for the motorists trying to drive up it https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23860972.photo-shows-citroen-using-suffolk-p...
glad he's ok, but seems he must have had a head injury before this incident....
Question for everyone judging the boy: how do you know he wasn't having a medical episode?
He sure as hell nearly had one!
I'm not going to dispute the foolishness of the lad, and I'm very glad he's alright, but there appears to be some deficiencies in the design of this crossing.
Why are there such large gaps in the barrier on the oncoming carriageway? And no skirts in the barriers? They do here.
And a point, not relevant to the cyclist, but the level crossing that I go through on the final part of my homeward commute, but there is a large pile of destroyed barriers, probably not caused by cyclists...
What does large gaps in the barrier have to do with anything?
Were you not thaught to wait in front of a red light?
Even if there wasn't such a big gap, he probably would have crossed anyway.
Lots of UK crossings have barriers that completely seal off the road with skirts that make it impossible to duck under, so anyone wanting to ignore the red light would have to lift their bike over and climb over after it; not enough to stop 100% of idiots of course but they do stop anyone just blithely riding through as here.
In the UK it depends on the speed limit & type,numbers of lines you are crossing & traffic frequency on the road as well as the line.
like youd find automatic half barriers like these on more rural roads that branch lines cross. You'd find the full barriers with skirts where an A road crosses the full East Coast main line as an example.
There's no barrier on the exit here because, just like the kid did, in this situation when people see the train they panic and focus on going forward, not stopping, or reversing back even when there's time to do so, so there's an exit so they dont get trapped.
The teen clearly rode around the barriers which block both sides of traffic; skirts would have made no difference and Australia uses the same barriers as shown here, which work fine to advise road users to not pass, along with flashing lights and bell.
Lots of crossing gates in London are a single pole with skirts or double poles that join tight in the middle (see picture), so it's impossible to go round, through or under them; the only way for a cyclist to cross would be to lift their bike over and then climb after it. This completely stops any "keep going and chance it" manouevres.
The gaps are there so that people who go past the first barrier as it is closing don't have to get caught by the second barrier.
The one I use has a delay built into the offside barrier.
I don't see any deficiencies at all.
It's fully signposted and lit, and it would need to be a total moron who ignored the barriers being down.
Let the morons die.
Play silly games. Win silly prizes.
Since he survived. I hope he learned a life lesson.
Hello
Nothing new...worldwide...human beings are dangerous for the other living beings and for themselves...the main optional on trucks, cars, motorbikes, bikes, moped, shoes, etc. etc. should be a functioning brain.
Dark times on the horizon if these are the adults of tomorrow
Not really. He is 15 years old, and a male. At that age they take risks which they fail to evaluate correctly, just something about brain development. It's a phase.
Hello
I completely disagree...we are talking about 15yo...not 5...my puppy stops in front of the red light...6mo...doing these things when you are 15yo is not "having your brain in development"...you don't have a brain to develop...also, why are you adding "male"?
Are you really claiming that your six months old puppy understands traffic lights, and can respond to them?
Especially as they lack a colour receptor in their vision so cannot tell the difference between red and green?
So color blind people can't drive? Ehat about the position of the light on? At the bottom they know it's green...go...
But you used the example of a six month old puppy.
because its relevant. Why would you not?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/parenting/children/science-be...
One more confirmation that males are more stupid since they are young then...
Can confirm from 15-19ish my friends and I played chicken with buses at every opportunity for no particular reason other than being too bored to wait and too 'hard' to run.
Fortunately that was just a phase and I'm now terrified of the cars that play chicken with me.