![\"Bethan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Bethan-Roper-death.jpg\")
Bethan Roper, 28, who died on a Bristol Temple Meads-bound train service in 2018(Image: PA)<\/p>\nBethan Roper, who was 28, died while returning home to Wales on a train with friends from a day out shopping in Bath. She placed her head outside a window and was struck by an overhanging tree branch while the trainBethan Roper, 28, who died on a Bristol Temple Meads-bound train service in 2018(Image: PA)<\/p>\n
Great Western Railway (GWR) has been ordered to pay more than \u00a31m after a Welsh woman was killed when she put her head out of an open train window on one of its services.<\/p>\n
Bethan Roper, who was 28, died on the evening of December 1, 2018, while returning home with friends from a day out Christmas<\/a> shopping in Bath. The London Paddington to Exeter service had just left Bath Spa station heading for Bristol Temple Meads when Miss Roper was fatally injured as the train passed through the Twerton area.<\/p>\n Miss Roper, from Penarth<\/a> in the Vale of Glamorgan, placed her head outside a droplight window – which are found on trains with slam doors and can be lowered to open – and was struck by an overhanging tree branch while the train was travelling at around 75mph. Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/p>\n An inquest into her death<\/a> detailed a post-mortem examination which gave the cause of Miss Roper\u2019s death as head injuries. Toxicology tests found she had a blood alcohol level of 142mg in 100ml of blood meaning she was nearly twice the drink-drive limit.<\/p>\n On Friday, October 3, it was confirmed that GWR has been fined \u00a31m and ordered to pay more than \u00a378,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaches of health and safety law following an investigation and prosecution by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).<\/p>\n In 2016 a passenger died in a similar incident near Balham in south London. Following that accident, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) issued safety recommendations in May 2017.<\/p>\n ORR said that, \u201calthough GWR was already aware of a number of previous incidents, the company did not produce a written risk assessment for droplight windows until September 2017\u201d.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the ORR added: \u201cThat assessment identified the hazard as one of the most significant passenger safety risks.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, ORR later found the assessment to be neither suitable nor sufficient and wrote to GWR to highlight its shortcomings. The assessment was not revised in light of ORR\u2019s concerns, and the actions GWR had identified to reduce the risk were not implemented before the fatal accident in 2018.<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing Ms Roper\u2019s death, further safety recommendations were issued across the rail industry, to prevent passengers from leaning out of droplight windows.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a result of these measures, all rolling stock operated by train companies that had droplight windows has since either been withdrawn from service or fitted with engineering controls to prevent windows being opened while trains are moving.\u201d<\/p>\n Richard Hines, ORR\u2019s chief inspector of railways, said: \u201cOur thoughts remain with the family and friends of Bethan Roper. Her death was a preventable tragedy that highlights the need for train operators to proactively manage risks and act swiftly when safety recommendations are made to keep their passengers safe.<\/p>\n \u201cOur investigation found that GWR fell short in its responsibilities, and this prosecution reflects the serious consequences of that failure.<\/p>\n “We welcome the actions taken since by GWR and the wider industry to reduce the risks. Safety must always remain the first priority across Britain\u2019s railways.\u201d<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethan Roper, who was 28, died while returning home to Wales on a train with friends from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,37429,760,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-480512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-great-western-railway","13":"tag-traffic-and-travel","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115333198881376370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}