Lindsey Inger death sparks campaign to prevent anyone else being killed

The death of Lindsey Inger provoked a campaign by angry locals for improved safety at the ‘Bone Mill’ level-crossing on the edge of Hucknall.

For it had also been the scene of another tragedy four years earlier, almost to the day.

On that occasion, Hucknall woman Jean Hoggart (65) and her seven-year-old grandson Mikey Dawson were killed when struck by a train on the Robin Hood Line, which runs parallel to the tram track.

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Now Network Rail has responded to public pressure and spent an estimated £1 million on a new footbridge, which was opened in September last year.

The bridge, which sits between the Moor Bridge and Butler’s Hill tram stops, links the Hucknall/Bulwell border on Hucknall Lane (near the bypass junction) with the route into Bestwood Village.

It means pedestrians and cyclists can now cross the tram and train tracks there without danger.

Lindsey’s inquest heard that the previous level-crossing where she perished was “unguarded and unregulated”, leaving pedestrians with the “sole responsibility of their venture on to the tram track”.

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“There was a chicane and signs encouraging people to look both ways,” said Pc Colin Thomas.

“But there were no warnings, no lights, no bells, no barriers, nothing.”

Nottinghamshire Coroner Mairin Casey described the new footbridge as “a failsafe step” and “the greatest possible means of avoiding an accident like this in the future”.

“If people collide with trams or trains now, they would have entered the tracks illegally,” she said.

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Lindsey Inger is the second person from the Dispatch district to be killed in an accidental collision with a tram since the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) line was opened ten years ago.

Hucknall cricketer Matthew Dear (23), of Nottingham Road, died near the Lace Market in Nottingham city centre in October 2007.

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