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A young mother was hit by an express train on Sunday while retrieving her mobile phone from the tracks at Wembledon Station in south west London. After police and paramedics arrived, which only took minutes, they pronounced Charlene Pickering, 23, dead at the scene. The young mother had a four-year-old son, Toby.
Pickering and Daniel Pickett, her boyfriend, were on their way home from the Chelsea vs Portsmouth FA Cup match at Stamford Bridge. They had been arguing when she dropped the phone. After bouncing several times on the seventh platform, it fell onto the tracks, and she jumped down after it. He begged her to get off the tracks and moments later she was hit by the Waterloo to Exeter service that passed through at 7:30pm. The track was shut down for several hours after the incident.
The trains that pass through Wembledon station without stopping are permitted to move as fast as 75mph. Rail officials say there would have been ten express trains passing through without stopping every hour on the night of the tragedy. There are two platforms that have fast-moving trains pass by, and both have signs for passengers, warning them to keep away from the edge of the platform. Additionally, there is an announcement over the speaker system before every express train passes, and officials are trying to determine if the warning announcement was made before Pickering was struck by the train.
Rail bosses and police are now reviewing CCTV images from the station to determine the full circumstances of Pickering’s death. A source tells reporters that the footage shows a young woman and boyfriend arguing. She dropped her phone, and it bounced onto the platform and then onto the track. She jumped down to get it and got hit by a train moving at 60mph. Her boyfriend had been shouting for her not to go down there, the insider added. British Transport Police Chief Inspector Alison Evans noted that this seems to be a tragic accident, and their thoughts are with the woman’s family at this very hard and sad time.
The incident has reignited calls for more safety measures to be implemented at Wembledon Station. Passengers said last year that safety barriers should be put up, while the speed limit for trains passing through should be reduced. This followed three people being killed by fast-moving trains during rush hour in only four months.
Meanwhile, a staff member at the coffee shop located on the seventh platform, said that this is the second tragedy of its kind in just three weeks. The worker doesn’t know what people are thinking. What happened to the young mother is terrible, but people don’t think about how dangerous being on the tracks is. It’s like they “go crazy” for a moment and forget they’re at a train station, the employee added.
