Poor maintenance may have led to woman's walkway death
A retired British professor who was crushed to death at a railway station in Italy may have died because panels on a moving walkway were not replaced after maintenance, it emerged today.
Sarah Marie Baldwin, from York, was killed instantly when a walkway collapsed and she fell into the machinery at Tiburtina Station in Rome yesterday.
The 62-year-old was with her ex-husband Jack Baldwin and another British tourist at the time of the horrific accident.
Eyewitnesses said an Italian train driver sustained serious leg injuries as he tried in vain to save her.
Officials from Italy’s railway network, RFI, have launched an investigation into the tragedy which happened near platform 25 of the busy station, in the east of the city.
But Italian police have said the inquiry will centre on five panels which had been removed from the walkway during maintenance but which had not been replaced.
It is understood Ms Baldwin had changed trains at Tiburtina to catch a connection to Terni, an hour north of Rome, when the tragedy happened yesterday just after 10.30am local time (9.30am UK time).
Ms Baldwin, was born in North Lanarkshire and was a former director of the social policy research unit at York University.
The rail worker who tried to save her, Vincenzo Pratico, 38, was being treated at the city’s Umberto I hospital for severe crush injuries.
Firefighters using cutting equipment had to free him from the machinery of the walkway but doctors fear he may lose a leg.
Two other people were also slightly hurt.
A Rome police spokesman said: “I can confirm that a British woman has been killed after a moving walkway collapsed under her at Tiburtina station by platform 25.
“We have no other details at the moment and an investigation is under way to find out the cause of the accident.
“Repair work was going on at the time on the walkway but it is too early to say whether this was the cause of the woman’s death.”
A British Embassy spokeswoman in Rome said: “I can confirm that a British woman has died after an incident on a moving walkway at Tiburtina station.
“She was with two other British nationals at the time. Neither of them were hurt but they were both extremely shocked.
“We are offering them consular assistance and the matter is now being investigated by the Italian authorities.”
A Foreign Office spokesman in London said: “She (Ms Baldwin) was standing on a travellator in the station when it collapsed.
“Next of kin have been informed, consular staff are in touch with the local authorities and are providing every practical consular assistance.”
Ms Baldwin’s brother Stephen Kilday, of Cumbernauld, Glasgow was last night too upset to talk about her death.
