Simon Brown: Govia Thameslink fined £1m over death of passenger who ‘put head out of window’

A rail firm has been fined £1m after a passenger died when he put his head out of a train window.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) pleaded guilty to a health and safety breach over the death of Simon Brown on a Gatwick Express service in August 2016.

Mr Brown, 24, a railway enthusiast, was hit on the head by a gantry as he leaned out of a publicly accessible window as the train approached Wandsworth Common station in south London.

Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC said: “Simon Brown appears to have put his head through the droplight window of the train where it was struck by track side gantry.

“Tragically he died as a result of the injuries sustained.”

Rail investigators told Southwark Crown Court there was a sticker on the door warning passengers against leaning out, but it was “cluttered” with other signs.

Mr Pegden said the signage around the window was “confusing”, there was no one on the train to monitor the use of the window at the time of the incident and GTR had not done a risk assessment.

It was a combination of factors he described as “a tragic corporate blindspot”.

Witnesses said he was looking out of the window when he was struck as the train was travelling at 61mph (98kph).

The court heard he was found collapsed on the carriage floor by a fellow passenger, having suffered a “massive trauma” to his head.

Patrick Verwer, GTR’s chief executive, who was in court, said: “I am very sorry for the death of Mr Brown and the deep distress this tragic loss has caused his family and friends.”

The firm was also ordered to pay £52,267 in costs.

A 2017 inquest found there was “no doubt” that his head was out of the window, but it was “not possible” to know how it got there and whether it was voluntarily or involuntarily.

Originally from East Grinstead, West Sussex, Mr Brown had recently started a new job as an engineering technician at Hitacho Rail Europe in Bristol.

He had volunteered on the Bluebell Railway, a heritage line which runs steam trains, when he was just nine years old.

His friend Reuben Smith, a railway conductor, said at the time: “Railways were his life. Simon was a great friend of ours and a real light in the railway world.”

A fundraising page set up to raise £1,000 for his funeral costs collected more than £9,000.

One contributor, Sandy Griffiths, wrote that “Simon was a lovely person” whose “love and work with trains and the railway (was) incredibly important to him”.

(c) Sky News 2019: Simon Brown: Govia Thameslink fined £1m over death of passenger who ‘put head out of window’