Infrabel has images of the incident via a technical camera that hangs there. Just after 8 o’clock the boy ignores the bell and the red lights and slaloms past the barriers with his bicycle. A passing train just barely touches the rear wheel of the bicycle. The boy falls and sustains a minor head injury. He needs to go to the hospital.
Thomas Baeken, spokesperson for Infrabel: “This could of course have been much worse for the victim. If he had been 1 second slower, the collision would in all likelihood have been fatal. Infrabel once again calls on people to respect the traffic rules at the level crossings. If it is red, you must stop for your own safety.”
Train traffic between Poperinge and Menen was halted for a few hours, the fifty passengers on the train in question had to get off at Wervik station.