:00:05. > :00:12.Hello from Dorchester on Thames in Oxfordshire. Welcome to Inside Out.
:00:12. > :00:17.More of your stories from where we live. In tonight's programme, one
:00:17. > :00:23.man's crusade to stop accidents like this ever happening again. My son
:00:23. > :00:28.would be alive if the person driving his boat had been wearing a kill
:00:28. > :00:36.cord. Rhubarb reduction is —— rhubarb, radishes — the allotments
:00:36. > :00:41.hold the key to Britain. This is a piece of Roman pottery. You're
:00:41. > :00:45.literally falling over stuff. Exactly, that's the excitement of
:00:45. > :00:52.living here. Inches from disaster, how lives were put at risk on one of
:00:52. > :01:08.the busiest commuter routes. This is Inside Out for the South of England.
:01:09. > :01:17.First, one father's campaign for change. It is 13 years since Tristan
:01:17. > :01:20.Douglas Johnson was killed by a runaway speedboat at the Southampton
:01:20. > :01:25.Boat Show. Earlier this year, a father and daughter lost their lives
:01:25. > :01:30.in a similar incident in Cornwall. Is it time to make wearing a kill
:01:30. > :01:42.cord a legal requirement? Sam Smith investigates. Speedboats. More
:01:42. > :01:50.popular than ever before. And more powerful. Boats like this with a
:01:50. > :01:55.medium—sized engine can easily reach speeds of around 50 miles an hour.
:01:55. > :02:05.It might not sound much, but believe me, that can be witty exciting. ——
:02:05. > :02:09.that can be pretty exciting. Voting is more accessible which is great.
:02:09. > :02:14.It doesn't need to be an expensive sport. People can buy small boats,
:02:14. > :02:19.get into boating. At the same time, people can get very fast bits of kit
:02:19. > :02:25.straightaway. With power comes responsibility. Tonight we are
:02:25. > :02:29.investigating whether those that govern boating in the UK could be
:02:29. > :02:34.doing more to prevent fatal accidents involving these machines.
:02:34. > :02:42.My son would be alive if the person driving his boat had been wearing
:02:42. > :02:47.the kill cord. In May this year, a tragedy on the camera less jury.
:02:47. > :02:51.This family were run over by their own speedboat as it raged out of
:02:52. > :02:55.control. Nick Milligan and his eight—year—old daughter died from
:02:55. > :03:00.their injuries. Exactly what happened that day is still under
:03:00. > :03:04.investigation but what is known is that nobody at the time of the
:03:04. > :03:08.accident was wearing one of these, a kill cord. This is wrapped around
:03:08. > :03:12.part of the skipper's body and if they go overboard for any reason, it
:03:12. > :03:18.gets yanked off the boat and it automatically cuts the engine.
:03:18. > :03:26.Heading Johnson fears more lives will be lost unless the law is
:03:26. > :03:30.changed. His son was killed by a speedboat 13 years ago in an
:03:30. > :03:36.accidents led to the one in Padstow. I saw that boats circling around in
:03:36. > :03:44.tight circles. And it brought back the whole horror of Tristan's
:03:44. > :03:48.situation. Tristan was being given a test ride at the Southampton Boat
:03:48. > :03:52.Show. The person driving the boat wasn't wearing a kill cord. When
:03:52. > :03:57.everyone was thrown into the water, Tristan couldn't swim out of the
:03:57. > :04:04.way. The boat ran over Tristan with the propeller, lacerating him,
:04:04. > :04:10.giving him fatal injuries. It is a horrific thought that he probably
:04:10. > :04:18.realised that the boat could run him over at any moment. And then, CNET
:04:18. > :04:23.approach, it is very hard to bear that thought. —— seeing it approach.
:04:23. > :04:29.Official figures show that an average of two kill cord accidents
:04:29. > :04:35.in the UK occur. Many are likely to go unreported. Headon is joining the
:04:35. > :04:40.harbour patrol. He wants to get a rough idea how many people are
:04:40. > :04:48.wearing kill cords voluntarily. He is not attached. I just noticed you
:04:48. > :04:53.coming in just now. You weren't attached to your kill cord. Is that
:04:53. > :05:02.something you do often? I must admit, I do it when I am doing for
:05:02. > :05:07.five miles an hour. Why didn't you attach it has you left? Because we
:05:07. > :05:15.needed to take all the things off the side. We were sorting ourselves
:05:15. > :05:20.out. So you would normally be wearing it? It is just as
:05:20. > :05:26.important, really, here. You can't tell what might occur. You can go
:05:26. > :05:30.over. Lock Heddon, it is a frustrating day with more than half
:05:30. > :05:36.the people he approaches are still not wearing their kill cords. Some
:05:36. > :05:41.people don't wear it out of bravado. It's safe and fun. That's not a
:05:41. > :05:45.problem. That's what we've heard. While he's on the water, there's
:05:45. > :05:50.news of another rescue as a speedboat spins out of control in
:05:50. > :05:55.Scotland. The skipper hadn't been wearing a kill cord. If Tristan's
:05:55. > :06:00.accident, which took place in front of the marine industry in Great
:06:00. > :06:05.Britain, has had no effect, kill cords are not being worn any more
:06:05. > :06:12.than they were back then, then it shows blatantly that education has
:06:12. > :06:21.failed. Now was the time for the law to back up the wearing of kill
:06:21. > :06:24.cords. That lifeboat ahead of us. Back to the neutral position.
:06:24. > :06:30.Excellent. The boating's opening body the Royal not —— Royal Yachting
:06:30. > :06:34.Association is firmly opposed to any lawmaking kill cord is compulsory,
:06:34. > :06:38.even though it's an safety courses teach they must be worn whenever it
:06:38. > :06:45.is running. Paul wrote to the powerboat training Handbook. There
:06:45. > :06:49.is a real danger that an incident creates a knee jerk reaction for a
:06:49. > :06:53.change which is unnecessary. If people do what they need to do and
:06:53. > :06:57.they do it right, most of those instances would not occur. I
:06:57. > :07:01.appreciate we want everything to change overnight, but the reality is
:07:01. > :07:07.it doesn't always happen that way. I take issue with it being overnight,
:07:07. > :07:10.because it is 13 years since the Southampton Boat Show and we've just
:07:10. > :07:15.had this awful incident in Padstow, and we have been out and we've seen
:07:15. > :07:20.many people not using kill cords. That is all true but we need a sense
:07:20. > :07:23.of perspective in terms of the number of incidents. Making it
:07:23. > :07:30.mandatory would make no difference whatsoever. Nick Milligan had done
:07:30. > :07:33.the RYA's course prior to his fatal accident in Padstow. Ball doesn't
:07:33. > :07:38.think the fact safety conscious people don't always wear their kill
:07:38. > :07:42.cords means a change is needed. The system is simple and works. If you
:07:42. > :07:46.attach the kill cord, and you fall out, it stops about. It is a system
:07:46. > :07:51.that has been around decades and the mindset hasn't changed. Doesn't that
:07:51. > :07:54.suggest the system needs to be changed? Don't we need to find new
:07:54. > :07:59.ways of making these boats safer? You can come up with new and better
:07:59. > :08:04.ways of doing things but if something works well... It works if
:08:04. > :08:11.people use it. A lot of people don't, I think you'd agree. No, they
:08:11. > :08:15.don't. I want that to change, we all want less incidents to occur.
:08:15. > :08:20.Surprisingly, RNLI skippers don't wear kill cords on their inshore
:08:20. > :08:26.lifeboats because of the risk they might inadvertently cut the engine
:08:26. > :08:28.in a dangerous situation. Some argue the conventional kill cord isn't
:08:28. > :08:34.always practical for recreational boaters either. The reason they're
:08:34. > :08:40.not wearing them is because you are least to the console. Which
:08:40. > :08:43.restricts your movement. On a boat, they're similar situations where you
:08:43. > :08:49.need to go to the front of the boat, to the act of the boat, help people
:08:49. > :08:55.in and out. You need to unclip. That whole time, you are open to
:08:55. > :09:01.problems. In those situations, it is not always possible to stop the
:09:01. > :09:04.engine. Not at all. Those are the worst situations because when you
:09:04. > :09:08.are mooring the boat, for example, you are messing around the boat,
:09:08. > :09:13.this is the throttle. There's a lot of boats now that are being
:09:13. > :09:16.manufactured when the throttle is so sensitive, one small knot and the
:09:16. > :09:21.boat is flying off in another direction. The people selling this
:09:22. > :09:26.new device think they've got the answer. The wireless Coast Key means
:09:26. > :09:34.the driver doesn't have to be attached to the boat all the time.
:09:34. > :09:39.There is a unit inside here, and if the signal is disrupted, the engine
:09:39. > :09:48.will cut. Time to put it to the test. Ready? Go, go, go! We've lost
:09:48. > :09:56.the skipper. The way he goes. Still going and, there you go. The engine
:09:56. > :10:00.has cut out. William. —— brilliant. We've got to get him back! The Coast
:10:00. > :10:06.Key is already being used on police boats in Norway. The RYA says
:10:06. > :10:09.wireless devices are a red herring, a distraction from its campaign to
:10:09. > :10:14.get more people were conventional kill cords. Heddon ever doubts he
:10:14. > :10:24.will ever convince them to support legislation. But he hasn't given
:10:24. > :10:29.up. Tristan's final New Year message strengthens his resolve. If I don't
:10:29. > :10:35.succeed now, there will come a day when we will see the sense of it. No
:10:35. > :10:39.one wants to see people dying unnecessarily something that can
:10:39. > :10:46.avoided by an action that takes a second to do. Heddon has started an
:10:46. > :10:50.online petition and is getting close to the 100,000 signatures needed for
:10:50. > :10:54.the chance of a debate in parliament, a debate over whether
:10:54. > :11:01.it's worth sacrificing some of the freedoms enjoyed by boaters for the
:11:01. > :11:05.chance of saving lives. Sam Smith reporting. Should wearing
:11:05. > :11:11.a kill cord beat a legal requirement? Let me know your
:11:11. > :11:15.requirement. —— let me know your opinions. If I told you the secret
:11:15. > :11:19.to modern supplies and can be found beneath the vegetable patch in
:11:19. > :11:23.Oxfordshire, you'd think I'd lost the plot. I tell you, it's true.
:11:23. > :11:25.It's this vegetable patch here in Dorchester on Thames.
:11:25. > :11:30.It's the quintessential English village, with its old abbey and
:11:30. > :11:34.picture postcard cottages. You might think nothing that monumental has
:11:34. > :11:41.ever really happened here. Time for a lesson. Dorchester on Thames is
:11:41. > :11:45.not strictly on the Thames. The Thames is just to the South and the
:11:45. > :11:50.West of the village. To the East is the River Thame. The two rivers meet
:11:50. > :11:53.just over there. I'm not saying the villagers are ancient but they've
:11:53. > :11:56.been knocking around here since the Stone Age. They liked it so much
:11:56. > :12:00.they stayed for the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Then the Romans turned
:12:00. > :12:07.up with their straight roads and fancy walls. It all got very
:12:07. > :12:11.exciting. In short, this small village packs a big old punch when
:12:11. > :12:16.it comes to history. And to get to the bottom of it you need one of
:12:16. > :12:22.these. One of these. And, of course, a helicopter. Because from up here
:12:22. > :12:39.it all gets a little clearer with a bird's eye view of the allotments.
:12:39. > :12:42.Set in the South West corner of the village in Saxon times, this area
:12:42. > :12:46.was known as the Hempcroft. Before that it was part of a walled town.
:12:46. > :12:49.Under here, beneath the beetroot and the brassicas are the secrets to
:12:49. > :12:55.Dorchester's incredible past. And that's something the local allotment
:12:55. > :13:01.holders know only too well. It is always exciting. I really like it
:13:01. > :13:07.when I find some pottery. I get excited if I find a spearhead or a
:13:07. > :13:12.coin. There is so much stuff around here, you can walk around and find
:13:12. > :13:20.it. I have this in my pocket. A piece of Roman pottery. I found it
:13:20. > :13:26.lying around. You are literally falling over the stuff. That is the
:13:26. > :13:30.excitement about living here. Quite often, you pick up little bits and
:13:30. > :13:37.pieces and the rules are that we're not supposed to take them away. But
:13:37. > :13:40.that is not always followed. Anyone playing by the rules leaves their
:13:40. > :13:44.finds on the shed windowsill. Look at this lot, all found by Oxford's
:13:44. > :13:53.amateur allotment archaeologists. And when the growing season's over
:13:53. > :14:02.there's still work to be done. In the winter time, we have a session
:14:03. > :14:07.in a garage in Dorchester. Five or six of us get together and we wash
:14:07. > :14:13.all these bits of bone and pottery and all the rest of it. It is quite
:14:13. > :14:22.fun. But once a year, the professionals roll into town. It is
:14:22. > :14:32.clearly no more than a three sided structure. Let's leave that. Remove
:14:32. > :14:33.the gravel right back to you. Dr Wendy Morrison, students from Oxford
:14:33. > :14:38.University and local volunteers have been unearthing Dorchester's past
:14:38. > :14:49.for the last seven years. What have you got? A needle. Worthy together?
:14:49. > :14:55.This is a really nice handle. This year, they're concentrating on its
:14:55. > :15:01.Roman past. Dorchester on Thames is an interesting place because it is
:15:01. > :15:04.one of only two walled towns. We know so very little about the
:15:04. > :15:10.internal arrangement of what was going on inside, it is significant.
:15:10. > :15:14.There is a lot of room in activity. The Romans were here for a long time
:15:14. > :15:18.and they were doing lots of stuff but we don't know very much about
:15:18. > :15:23.what they were doing. The Romans turned up in Britain in AD43 but it
:15:23. > :15:26.seems they didn't make it as far as Dorchester on Thames until AD60 or
:15:26. > :15:29.maybe a shade earlier. But it's not just when the Romans arrived that's
:15:29. > :15:37.intriguing archaeologists, it's also when they left. This is one of the
:15:37. > :15:43.relatively few places where we appear to have pretty good evidence
:15:43. > :15:47.for at least some of what is happening in this tricky period, the
:15:47. > :15:53.transition from the late Roman to the early Anglo—Saxon. So what have
:15:53. > :15:56.we got? At the bottom of the screen you can just make out the Roman
:15:56. > :15:59.Road. Alongside the road are a series of pits where the Romans
:15:59. > :16:03.would have chucked their rubbish. At the far end the team have found wall
:16:03. > :16:05.footings, possibly of domestic structure. But it's in between these
:16:05. > :16:12.that archaeologists have unearthed remains of a more unusual building.
:16:12. > :16:19.This structure which we are referring to as the shrine, it has
:16:19. > :16:28.got three sides to it. These two narrow walls. And this wider
:16:28. > :16:35.structure. The interior space where you can see these smaller paving
:16:35. > :16:43.slabs, we have got a lovely flagon neck. Somebody dropped that. Who was
:16:43. > :16:48.the last person that touched this 1700 years ago? And the finds keep
:16:48. > :16:58.on coming as the allotments reveal its secrets. We found a couple of
:16:58. > :17:15.hair pins and a lot of bones and pieces of pottery. There was painted
:17:15. > :17:26.plaster down here as well. We have found a lot of interesting things.
:17:26. > :17:30.One of the wonderful things about archaeology is that you have to fit
:17:30. > :17:35.the narrative around the fact and one new piece of evidence can change
:17:35. > :17:40.the entire story. Your story can change from minute to minute. But
:17:40. > :17:45.Dorchester on Thames hasn't always been so careful with its past. On
:17:45. > :17:52.the other side of the village lie the sailing club and fishing lakes.
:17:52. > :17:55.These former quarries were dug in the 1940's with only limited
:17:55. > :17:58.archaeological excavation. The pits destroyed one of the most important
:17:58. > :18:04.Neolithic and Bronze age ceremonial sites in the whole of the British
:18:04. > :18:15.Isles. Who knows what clues to our past were lost beneath the water?
:18:15. > :18:19.With this year's dig nearly over, time for the local villagers to get
:18:19. > :18:30.their hands on at the annual open day. What you have in front of you
:18:30. > :18:35.are two separate buildings and then more. Guided tours, historical tales
:18:35. > :18:57.and a tent full of treasures all inspiring the next generation. What
:18:57. > :19:01.has 2013 revealed? Has it been a good year? It has been a fantastic
:19:01. > :19:07.year. We are beginning to understand more about the early Roman phases of
:19:07. > :19:10.activity. We have had four approaches which all data to the
:19:10. > :19:16.late first century early second century. Worst of them are in
:19:16. > :19:21.pristine condition. That is a very personal artefact. That is something
:19:21. > :19:31.somebody wore so it is very exciting. That is a connection with
:19:31. > :19:37.the person 1900 years ago. We found a Roman brooch, pieces of prop ——
:19:37. > :19:44.pottery and other things like that. I want to be an archaeologist when I
:19:44. > :19:51.grow up. Local people can identify the artefacts and there has been in
:19:51. > :19:54.1800 year timespan but people are still doing the same things. It is
:19:54. > :20:06.nice to have that link with the past.
:20:06. > :20:14.There is history everywhere you look in Dorchester on Thames like these
:20:14. > :20:20.two beautiful cars. From road to rail and the Bochum railway tunnel.
:20:20. > :20:25.Two years ago part of its ceiling collapsed. Our reporter has been
:20:25. > :21:13.hearing how lives were put at risk on one of the busiest commuter
:21:13. > :21:39.routes. We are thankful that they spotted the failure. It was
:21:39. > :21:43.certainly a dangerous incident. Potentially thousands of lives were
:21:43. > :21:46.put at risk. We have spoken to a Network Rail engineer who asked to
:21:47. > :21:54.remain anonymous and he's told us that if just one data had had a
:21:54. > :21:59.train passengers would have died. You are looking at a fatality. Two
:21:59. > :22:07.trains would have been spinning round. It would have ripped the
:22:07. > :22:15.train. They would have been fatalities. So what exactly
:22:15. > :22:20.happened? Using the report we have recreated the situation in 2011.
:22:20. > :22:26.This false roof manages the water that trips into the channel. It is
:22:26. > :22:30.supposed to be tracked regularly but it wasn't. Three of the steel
:22:30. > :22:35.girders that support the roof had partially collapsed. They were left
:22:35. > :22:38.hanging just 11 inches above the top of the train. When safety stuff
:22:38. > :22:42.under the tunnel they found more than a dozen boats were missing,
:22:42. > :22:47.boats that were supposed to be fixing beams to the wall but had in
:22:47. > :22:54.fact I've been missing, broken or not replaced fears. Worryingly, the
:22:54. > :23:43.report tells us that as far back as 2008, engineers were telling the
:23:43. > :23:49.company things were going wrong. The engineer responsible was not
:23:49. > :23:53.suitably qualified and was not given the right support. The report said
:23:53. > :23:55.he did not recognise the problem, didn't appreciate the risk and did
:23:55. > :24:01.not consider more widespread concerns. Our whistle—blower who has
:24:01. > :24:10.worked the decades on the tracks across the country says the problem
:24:10. > :24:14.of inexperienced staff is still an issue and that passengers lives are
:24:15. > :24:21.still being put at risk. These tunnels should be inspected more
:24:21. > :24:26.often by competent people. Not somebody who, no disrespect, who has
:24:26. > :24:29.just come out of university or college with a degree in one hand
:24:29. > :24:33.and the torch in the other. They have not got enough men as it is on
:24:33. > :24:37.the ground to do track examination. What used to be examined 34 times a
:24:37. > :24:47.week is now examined in some parts once a week or once fortnight. That
:24:47. > :24:53.is a bit worrying. The London to Brighton line is one of the busiest
:24:53. > :24:59.in the country. More than 70 million passengers a year travel on the main
:24:59. > :25:05.route and 2500 trains per week pass through the Balkan tunnel. The facts
:25:05. > :25:10.are many of us want to travel by train is part of the problem is part
:25:11. > :25:14.of the problem to Network Rail. The company have very little time to get
:25:14. > :25:26.onto the railway between the last train at night and the first train
:25:26. > :25:30.in the morning. More and more people want to travel late at night and
:25:30. > :25:33.early in the morning. There is pressure on the night time to get on
:25:33. > :25:39.the track. The railway staff are always fighting the tension between
:25:39. > :25:47.running train passengers and finding the time to work on the track. When
:25:47. > :25:51.the Balcome Tunnel was closed for emergency repairs two years ago this
:25:51. > :25:54.was the scene at stations up and down the line. But while passengers
:25:54. > :26:02.don't want this sort of chaos, they do want a safe railway. The London
:26:02. > :26:07.to Kings Lynn service derailed at over 100 an hour. This is not the
:26:07. > :26:12.first time Network Rail has been criticised. The company was fined £3
:26:12. > :26:17.million for lapses in health and safety which led to the Potters bar
:26:17. > :26:21.train crash in 2002. While the authors of this latest report don't
:26:21. > :26:27.apportion blame, they did tell us they had asked Network Rail to
:26:27. > :26:30.strengthen its regime of tunnel management to avoid similar
:26:30. > :26:34.incidents in the future. This document has been published by the
:26:34. > :26:39.real rate later and in it they had issues with the track in Sussex,
:26:39. > :26:44.issues with planned maintenance I Network Rail. But the company has
:26:44. > :26:49.insisted things are better and that the tunnel is safe. From my
:26:49. > :26:54.perspective, I can assure the general public and our customers
:26:54. > :26:59.that we have changed our processes and got much more accountability. We
:26:59. > :27:03.are investing more money and if —— and from the kennels perspective I
:27:03. > :27:11.am satisfied we have a re—engineered tunnel. And what of the future? The
:27:11. > :27:15.regulator who can prosecute Network Rail if it feels the rules are being
:27:15. > :27:18.broken has told us it will be closely monitoring the company to
:27:18. > :27:28.ensure they are delivering a safe and efficient railway.
:27:28. > :27:32.That is your lot for this week but before we go, let's have a look at a
:27:33. > :27:39.few of your e—mails. We had a big response to last week 's computer
:27:39. > :28:25.scam story. Charles from Southampton said.
:28:25. > :28:35.Margaret was charged £137. Keep the e—mails coming. Next week, poor food
:28:35. > :28:40.and not enough of it. How this man checked himself out of a care home
:28:40. > :28:44.to cater for himself. I was a bit of a misfit in the home due to the fact
:28:44. > :28:49.I've got my faculties and I could see what was going on. What he was
:28:49. > :28:52.given was not very appetising.