Tragedy as teenage girl struck and killed by train in Yorkshire

Officers from British Transport Police are now investigating the incident, which happened shortly after 9am yesterday near Harrogate.

The incident happened on 
the same day an inquest was 
held into the death of a 15-year-old boy who was hit by moving train near Doncaster this summer.

Daniel Powell was killed on the night of June 11, this year, when he walked across tracks only yards away from the Toad Hole crossing in Rossington, near Doncaster – an area described as a “regular trespass spot” by one police officer.

British Transport Police said yesterday’s fatal incident in North Yorkshire was not being treated as suspicious.

A spokesman added: “Officers are working to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident, formally identify the female, who is believed to be aged 17 from Harrogate, and inform her next of kin.”

He said that a file on the incident would then be passed to the coroner.

Commuters were warned of long delays after the incident, with trains through Leeds, Burley Park, Headingley, Horsforth, Harrogate, Hornbeam, Starbeck, Knaresborough, Cattal, Hammerton, Poppleton and York being affected,

In Doncaster, the inquest into Daniel Powell’s death, heard the train driver, who had eight years experience, had been driving from London King’s Cross to Hull when the train struck the teenager.

In a written statement to the hearing, she described Daniel, who was living with foster parents at the time, as being in “a world of his own” and that “he seemed oblivious to his surroundings” just before the collision.

She told how she was just slowing the train’s speed from 110mph as she entered the Rossington area when she saw a person in a light blue hoodie walking towards the tracks from her left.

The inquest heard the boy was probably a mile away as the train travelled in the middle of three tracks and she sounded its horn. As the train continued, however, he stepped over the first rail of the tracks.

The driver added she could see his hood was up and wondered if he could hear the horn. When he stepped on to the track the train was running on he “appeared to stop and stand still”.

She applied the emergency brakes but the train could not stop before hitting him.

The hearing heard the cause of death was given as multiple injuries due to a railway collision. A toxicology test came back negative.

The coroner was told Daniel “experienced some issues with the development of his character” but there was educational support for him. He also received support beyond his education that included local authorities and the police.

The inquest heard it was unclear what the teenager’s movements had been in the hours prior to the incident. Assistant Deputy Coroner Dr Teresa Searle said she had concerns about Daniel’s whereabouts in that period. The court heard that if Daniel had not returned home by a certain time in the evening the police were contacted, as was previously agreed, and he would be brought home.

They had been contacted on this occasion. Dr Searle told the court that this information didn’t “take her any further as to how Daniel died” and what was known was that the “police were informed that he wasn’t where he was expected to be”.

The hearing was adjourned for further enquiries to be made into information downloaded from the on-train data recorder. A date for the resumption of the inquest is yet to be fixed.