Rail firm fined £1m after woman killed leaning out of train window

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/03/rail-firm-fined-1m-after-woman-killed-leaning-out-of-train/

by SojournerInThisVale

33 comments

  1. And from that point on there were no windows you could lean out of.

  3. how is that their fault? this is why windows don’t open because of these moronic people

  4. Bit mad really. Maybe don’t put your head out of a train travelling at 75mph

  6. Firstly, I’m not suggesting that continuing to run trains with droplight windows was a sensible idea given the astounding lack of common sense some people display these days, a rail company should take prior incidents into account when making decisions on passenger safety.

    But personally I’m very attached to my head and wouldn’t stick it out of a carriage window while travelling at 75 mph, especially when there is an obvious risk of hitting equipment positioned next to the track or foliage that may have grown or fallen adjacent to the track due to storm damage or rot.

    As a nation we appear to decry the growing nanny state that tells us what we can and cannot do, then hold companies responsible for an individuals failure to predict an entirely forseeable outcome to an action, a move that just adds to the abdication of personal responsibility, handing control over our lives and available actions to the government.

    Edit: I guess it’s all self defeating in the end, where the abdication of responsibility leads to an avoidable accident via the thought “they wouldnt allow me to do it if it was dangerous”, leading to the curtailing of actions through tightening legislation, leading to someone else finding an even more dangerous activity that surely would be prevented if it actually was dangerous…

  7. I hope the family put the Darwin Award somewhere prominent.

  8. There’s something about getting on or in vehicles that seems to suppress people’s self preservation instincts.

  9. What train allows you to lean out like that? Hsts did but they all have sealed automatic doors now.

  10. Back when I were a nipper we had a book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake on how to not be a fucking idiot on and around railways lines.

    It included a page on ‘not sticking your head out of the window, you moron’ with a comical image of a mans head flying off after hitting a post.

    We, as Year 3 kids, laughed; why would anyone be so stupid. Why do we need this one in the book?

    Anyway, turns out we did.

  11. I would have fined the family of the woman for wasting everyone’s time and resources, not the train firm.

    I hate what we’re becoming, no personal responsibility anymore. Always someone else’s fault.

  12. What on earth was going through her mind when she hung out of the train window???

    Telegraph pole you say?

  13. Aww I miss the old GWR High Speed trains with the drop down windows; bloody draughty but with a big buffet car etc – far nicer and more characterful than the hitachi stuff we have now 😭

  14. The article has a very questionable paragraph. Read it carefully:

    > Ms Roper had poked her head out of a window in a door which could be lowered when passengers needed to use the handle outside to leave the carriage, known as a droplight window.

    It could have been written like this

    > The door windows of that type of train could be lowered to use the handle outside to leave the carriage

    Yet you could argue they are trying to imply she poked her head out /in order to/ open the window. There was no need to mix ‘Ms Roper had poked her head out of a window’ and the explanation of why the window exists

  15. Time to bring back those terrifying PSAs where jimmy decides it’s a good idea to fly a kite near a powerline.

  16. This appears to have involved an Inter City 125 train that has been around since the mid-70s. How is that for decades people managed not to stick their heads out of the windows and get themselves killed? Was it the Young Ones sketch where Vyv got decapitated doing that? Was it Roald Dahl’s Guide to Railway Safety?

  17. They need to bring back 70s style public information films

  19. I know which trains it’s going to be without even checking. They are actually lovely trains, I’ve been on them, as have millions of others, and didn’t end up decapitated. Skill issue.

  20. As this is main railway company operating a commercial route and mass public transit then its warranted they got find as i think people should expect the safest journey reasonably possible but if it was heritage train and journey then i think they should have exceptions.

  21. So she opened a window for a reason other than it was intended to open for and got killed while sticking her head out?

    Besides the rail company not having windows that don’t open(to account for people stupid enough to do things like this) I don’t see how this is anyone else’s fault but the woman’s for taking risky actions and having sonething lethal happen.

    If I’m in a car and roll the window down and get myself killed sticking my head out it’s not the manufacturer’s fault for making a car with windows that open.

    If I’m wrong or missing context please correct me.

  22. Maybe some of the “natural selection’ advocates on here should learn about these types of trains. As they should know, awareness and knowledge are useful tools for the fittest to survive

    These trains were common in UK and were a safety hazzard. You HAD to lean out of the window to open the door

  23. A good 20 years ago I used to commute into London on the ‘slam door’ trains. You had to put your arm out of the window to release the doors from the outside. They were very different beasts to what we have today. So cold in winter that I’d take a sleeping bag to keep me warm for an hour! Today’s trains are like space rockets by comparison.

    I never got killed or lost a limb or my head.

    I guess my point is they are not inherently dangerous if you have some common sense and don’t do silly things. I rode slam door trains every workday for years.

  24. I miss these HSTs. There was a certain camaraderie element when sticking your head out the window to open the door and seeing other passengers doing the same.

  25. I can’t read the article as it’s paywalled but here in Thailand all the windows in 3rd class carriages fully open and are generally left like that on most journeys. It is very rare to see locals sticking their heads out of the windows. 1st and 2nd class carriages are air conditioned so I don’t think the windows open.

    Earlier this week I did a return journey to Bangkok. 9 hours each way in 3rd class. I didn’t see a single person sticking their head out of the window.

    I fail to see how it’s the fault of the rail company. Surely it’s up to the individual to apply some common sense.

  26. They’re getting fined because they didn’t do anything after a similar accident two years earlier.

  27. Yeah, thanks for the link to a paywalled newspaper website. Honestly, what was the point

  28. Surely, this is her own fault. Play stupid games etc.

  29. Must be a southern thing there are no drop windows anywhere on any of the lines I constantly take, they are old obsolete and dangerous because of the fact dumb ass people put their hands and head out of them,

  30. I’m sure we used to have signs on the windows to say not to lean out?

    It’s not like she was a kid – this tragedy was easily avoidable. 

  31. I am pretty sure that these doors have a warning telling people not to open or lean out of the window until the train comes to a complete stop.
    Unfortunately people have tendency to know better !
    Today’s car owners manual tells you not to drink the oil ! 50 years ago it told you how to service the car and adjust the tappets!
    More modern rolling stock fortunately has no opening windows.
    However, if I hire a car, don’t familiarises myself with the different controls etc, is it my fault or the hire car companies fault when I have a fatal accident?
    Natural selection is a bitch !

  32. This article made me think that I wasn’t able to look out the window from a train in ages. In 2018, when *Beast From The East* attacked Britain, I was able to look out the window from a moving train to record the blizzard. Huh, since then I haven’t seen trains that allow open windows.

  33. I know people think we are ruled over by the top 1% – the truth is that we are ruled over by the bottom 10%.

    So much of our life and how we interact with the world is set up in a way that either absolves liability of idiotic actions by idiots or coerces better behaviour by the same idiot.

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