NETWORK Rail has been fined £450,000 after it failed to install sufficient safety devices at a Herefordshire level crossing that led to the death of a county woman.

Jane Harding died after the car in which she was travelling was in collision with a train at Moreton-on- Lugg in January 2010.

Signalman Adrian Maund raised the barriers after he thought that a Manchester to Milford Haven train had passed.

The 43-year-old, from Caswell Crescent, Leominster, who had worked in the signal box for 19 years, said he became distracted after a farmer called him on two occasions asking if he could take his sheep across the line at a crossing further up the track.

Once he realised that the train was approaching, he tried to lower the barriers and change the signals, but it was too late and train driver Andrew Robins was unable to avoid the collision.

Mrs Harding, a 52-year-old hairdresser from Marden and mother to 16-year-old Joe, died from her injuries at Hereford County Hospital.

Her husband Mark, who was driving, survived the collision, as did Carol Anne Thornewell and her 12- year-old daughter who were travelling in a separate car.

In February, a jury at Birmingham Crown Court found Maund guilty of not taking reasonable care for the health and safety of railway and railway crossing users after he raised the barriers when it was unsafe.

He was fined £1,750 when sentenced at the same court today and ordered to do 275 hours of unpaid work.

The jury also unanimously agreed that Network Rail failed in its duty of care for the health and safety of railway and railway crossing users after they heard the company backtracked on installing an approach locking device at Moreton-on-Lugg that could have prevented Mrs Harding’s death.

The system, which prosecutor Philip Mott said could have cost less than £40,000, would have made it impossible for the signals to change and for the barriers to go up until after the train had passed.

Representing Network Rail, Prashant Popat said the device would have cost up to 10 times as much and there was no requirement for the company to install it.

As well as the £450,000 fine, Network Rail were told to pay £33,000 prosecution costs.

Maund was ordered to pay £750 costs.

Since the accident alterations costing more than £100,000 have been made at the crossing and there are plans to eventually close the signal box.

Network Rail spokesman Kevin Groves told the Hereford Times in February that the box at Moreton-on-on-Lugg will not exist within the next 20 years because the company is going through a massive national re-signalling stage.

He added that they will instead be controlled by 14 centres that will cover the entire country and 800 smaller locations, like Moreton will close.

The system currently in place in Moreton was installed in 2011 and results in controls in the signal box being disabled whenever a train hits a treadle on the track.