Inquest held into fatal farm accident
Thursday, 3 July 2008
The late Mr James Craig.
A FATAL collision between a Limavady farmer's tractor and a Northern Ireland Railways train at an unmanned rail crossing, could have been prevented with the provision of warning lights, a jury at Derry Crown Court has ruled.
70-year-old James Craig from Carse Road, Limavady died last August when the Massey Ferguson tractor he was travelling in collided with a train on the main Londonderry to Belfast line.
An inquest into the Myroe farmer's death on Tuesday ( July 1) found that he died of multiple injuries. A jury of eight heard evidence from witnesses of the tragic accident as well as statements from family members who arrived on the scene shortly after the tragedy took place.
On the day of his death, Mr Craig and his son had been turning and bailing straw on land which the NIR train rail line ran across. It was during one of Mr Craig's journeys across the line to bail straw that the fatal collision occurred .
The court heard that on Thursday August 2 2007 at around 3.22pm , train B413 travelling from Londonderry's Waterside station collided with a tractor at an unmanned level crossing just 700 metres from the disused station at the Limavady junction.
Northern Ireland Coroner John Leckey described the day of Mr Craig's death as a "beautiful summer's day" where 1,000 metres of the track was in clear view from the level crossing . He added that due to the frequency of the crossings between Mr Craig and his son to get to either side of the split land that a decision was made to leave gates either side of the rail line opened so that neither would have to stop each time to reopen and close them.
