30/09/2013 Inside Out South

Hello from Dorchester on Thames in Oxfordshire. Welcome to Inside Out.

More of your stories from where we live. In tonight's programme, one

man's crusade to stop accidents like this ever happening again. My son

would be alive if the person driving his boat had been wearing a kill

cord. Rhubarb reduction is —— rhubarb, radishes — the allotments

hold the key to Britain. This is a piece of Roman pottery. You're

literally falling over stuff. Exactly, that's the excitement of

living here. Inches from disaster, how lives were put at risk on one of

the busiest commuter routes. This is Inside Out for the South of England.

First, one father's campaign for change. It is 13 years since Tristan

Douglas Johnson was killed by a runaway speedboat at the Southampton

Boat Show. Earlier this year, a father and daughter lost their lives

in a similar incident in Cornwall. Is it time to make wearing a kill

cord a legal requirement? Sam Smith investigates. Speedboats. More

popular than ever before. And more powerful. Boats like this with a

medium—sized engine can easily reach speeds of around 50 miles an hour.

It might not sound much, but believe me, that can be witty exciting. ——

that can be pretty exciting. Voting is more accessible which is great.

It doesn't need to be an expensive sport. People can buy small boats,

get into boating. At the same time, people can get very fast bits of kit

straightaway. With power comes responsibility. Tonight we are

investigating whether those that govern boating in the UK could be

doing more to prevent fatal accidents involving these machines.

My son would be alive if the person driving his boat had been wearing

the kill cord. In May this year, a tragedy on the camera less jury.

This family were run over by their own speedboat as it raged out of

control. Nick Milligan and his eight—year—old daughter died from

their injuries. Exactly what happened that day is still under

investigation but what is known is that nobody at the time of the

accident was wearing one of these, a kill cord. This is wrapped around

part of the skipper's body and if they go overboard for any reason, it

gets yanked off the boat and it automatically cuts the engine.

Heading Johnson fears more lives will be lost unless the law is

changed. His son was killed by a speedboat 13 years ago in an

accidents led to the one in Padstow. I saw that boats circling around in

tight circles. And it brought back the whole horror of Tristan's

situation. Tristan was being given a test ride at the Southampton Boat

Show. The person driving the boat wasn't wearing a kill cord. When

everyone was thrown into the water, Tristan couldn't swim out of the

way. The boat ran over Tristan with the propeller, lacerating him,

giving him fatal injuries. It is a horrific thought that he probably

realised that the boat could run him over at any moment. And then, CNET

approach, it is very hard to bear that thought. —— seeing it approach.

Official figures show that an average of two kill cord accidents

in the UK occur. Many are likely to go unreported. Headon is joining the

harbour patrol. He wants to get a rough idea how many people are

wearing kill cords voluntarily. He is not attached. I just noticed you

coming in just now. You weren't attached to your kill cord. Is that

something you do often? I must admit, I do it when I am doing for

five miles an hour. Why didn't you attach it has you left? Because we

needed to take all the things off the side. We were sorting ourselves

out. So you would normally be wearing it? It is just as

important, really, here. You can't tell what might occur. You can go

over. Lock Heddon, it is a frustrating day with more than half

the people he approaches are still not wearing their kill cords. Some

people don't wear it out of bravado. It's safe and fun. That's not a

problem. That's what we've heard. While he's on the water, there's

news of another rescue as a speedboat spins out of control in

Scotland. The skipper hadn't been wearing a kill cord. If Tristan's

accident, which took place in front of the marine industry in Great

Britain, has had no effect, kill cords are not being worn any more

than they were back then, then it shows blatantly that education has

failed. Now was the time for the law to back up the wearing of kill

cords. That lifeboat ahead of us. Back to the neutral position.

Excellent. The boating's opening body the Royal not —— Royal Yachting

Association is firmly opposed to any lawmaking kill cord is compulsory,

even though it's an safety courses teach they must be worn whenever it

is running. Paul wrote to the powerboat training Handbook. There

is a real danger that an incident creates a knee jerk reaction for a

change which is unnecessary. If people do what they need to do and

they do it right, most of those instances would not occur. I

appreciate we want everything to change overnight, but the reality is

it doesn't always happen that way. I take issue with it being overnight,

because it is 13 years since the Southampton Boat Show and we've just

had this awful incident in Padstow, and we have been out and we've seen

many people not using kill cords. That is all true but we need a sense

of perspective in terms of the number of incidents. Making it

mandatory would make no difference whatsoever. Nick Milligan had done

the RYA's course prior to his fatal accident in Padstow. Ball doesn't

think the fact safety conscious people don't always wear their kill

cords means a change is needed. The system is simple and works. If you

attach the kill cord, and you fall out, it stops about. It is a system

that has been around decades and the mindset hasn't changed. Doesn't that

suggest the system needs to be changed? Don't we need to find new

ways of making these boats safer? You can come up with new and better

ways of doing things but if something works well... It works if

people use it. A lot of people don't, I think you'd agree. No, they

don't. I want that to change, we all want less incidents to occur.

Surprisingly, RNLI skippers don't wear kill cords on their inshore

lifeboats because of the risk they might inadvertently cut the engine

in a dangerous situation. Some argue the conventional kill cord isn't

always practical for recreational boaters either. The reason they're

not wearing them is because you are least to the console. Which

restricts your movement. On a boat, they're similar situations where you

need to go to the front of the boat, to the act of the boat, help people

in and out. You need to unclip. That whole time, you are open to

problems. In those situations, it is not always possible to stop the

engine. Not at all. Those are the worst situations because when you

are mooring the boat, for example, you are messing around the boat,

this is the throttle. There's a lot of boats now that are being

manufactured when the throttle is so sensitive, one small knot and the

boat is flying off in another direction. The people selling this

new device think they've got the answer. The wireless Coast Key means

the driver doesn't have to be attached to the boat all the time.

There is a unit inside here, and if the signal is disrupted, the engine

will cut. Time to put it to the test. Ready? Go, go, go! We've lost

the skipper. The way he goes. Still going and, there you go. The engine

has cut out. William. —— brilliant. We've got to get him back! The Coast

Key is already being used on police boats in Norway. The RYA says

wireless devices are a red herring, a distraction from its campaign to

get more people were conventional kill cords. Heddon ever doubts he

will ever convince them to support legislation. But he hasn't given

up. Tristan's final New Year message strengthens his resolve. If I don't

succeed now, there will come a day when we will see the sense of it. No

one wants to see people dying unnecessarily something that can

avoided by an action that takes a second to do. Heddon has started an

online petition and is getting close to the 100,000 signatures needed for

the chance of a debate in parliament, a debate over whether

it's worth sacrificing some of the freedoms enjoyed by boaters for the

chance of saving lives. Sam Smith reporting. Should wearing

a kill cord beat a legal requirement? Let me know your

requirement. —— let me know your opinions. If I told you the secret

to modern supplies and can be found beneath the vegetable patch in

Oxfordshire, you'd think I'd lost the plot. I tell you, it's true.

It's this vegetable patch here in Dorchester on Thames.

It's the quintessential English village, with its old abbey and

picture postcard cottages. You might think nothing that monumental has

ever really happened here. Time for a lesson. Dorchester on Thames is

not strictly on the Thames. The Thames is just to the South and the

West of the village. To the East is the River Thame. The two rivers meet

just over there. I'm not saying the villagers are ancient but they've

been knocking around here since the Stone Age. They liked it so much

they stayed for the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. Then the Romans turned

up with their straight roads and fancy walls. It all got very

exciting. In short, this small village packs a big old punch when

it comes to history. And to get to the bottom of it you need one of

these. One of these. And, of course, a helicopter. Because from up here

it all gets a little clearer with a bird's eye view of the allotments.

Set in the South West corner of the village in Saxon times, this area

was known as the Hempcroft. Before that it was part of a walled town.

Under here, beneath the beetroot and the brassicas are the secrets to

Dorchester's incredible past. And that's something the local allotment

holders know only too well. It is always exciting. I really like it

when I find some pottery. I get excited if I find a spearhead or a

coin. There is so much stuff around here, you can walk around and find

it. I have this in my pocket. A piece of Roman pottery. I found it

lying around. You are literally falling over the stuff. That is the

excitement about living here. Quite often, you pick up little bits and

pieces and the rules are that we're not supposed to take them away. But

that is not always followed. Anyone playing by the rules leaves their

finds on the shed windowsill. Look at this lot, all found by Oxford's

amateur allotment archaeologists. And when the growing season's over

there's still work to be done. In the winter time, we have a session

in a garage in Dorchester. Five or six of us get together and we wash

all these bits of bone and pottery and all the rest of it. It is quite

fun. But once a year, the professionals roll into town. It is

clearly no more than a three sided structure. Let's leave that. Remove

the gravel right back to you. Dr Wendy Morrison, students from Oxford

University and local volunteers have been unearthing Dorchester's past

for the last seven years. What have you got? A needle. Worthy together?

This is a really nice handle. This year, they're concentrating on its

Roman past. Dorchester on Thames is an interesting place because it is

one of only two walled towns. We know so very little about the

internal arrangement of what was going on inside, it is significant.

There is a lot of room in activity. The Romans were here for a long time

and they were doing lots of stuff but we don't know very much about

what they were doing. The Romans turned up in Britain in AD43 but it

seems they didn't make it as far as Dorchester on Thames until AD60 or

maybe a shade earlier. But it's not just when the Romans arrived that's

intriguing archaeologists, it's also when they left. This is one of the

relatively few places where we appear to have pretty good evidence

for at least some of what is happening in this tricky period, the

transition from the late Roman to the early Anglo—Saxon. So what have

we got? At the bottom of the screen you can just make out the Roman

Road. Alongside the road are a series of pits where the Romans

would have chucked their rubbish. At the far end the team have found wall

footings, possibly of domestic structure. But it's in between these

that archaeologists have unearthed remains of a more unusual building.

This structure which we are referring to as the shrine, it has

got three sides to it. These two narrow walls. And this wider

structure. The interior space where you can see these smaller paving

slabs, we have got a lovely flagon neck. Somebody dropped that. Who was

the last person that touched this 1700 years ago? And the finds keep

on coming as the allotments reveal its secrets. We found a couple of

hair pins and a lot of bones and pieces of pottery. There was painted

plaster down here as well. We have found a lot of interesting things.

One of the wonderful things about archaeology is that you have to fit

the narrative around the fact and one new piece of evidence can change

the entire story. Your story can change from minute to minute. But

Dorchester on Thames hasn't always been so careful with its past. On

the other side of the village lie the sailing club and fishing lakes.

These former quarries were dug in the 1940's with only limited

archaeological excavation. The pits destroyed one of the most important

Neolithic and Bronze age ceremonial sites in the whole of the British

Isles. Who knows what clues to our past were lost beneath the water?

With this year's dig nearly over, time for the local villagers to get

their hands on at the annual open day. What you have in front of you

are two separate buildings and then more. Guided tours, historical tales

and a tent full of treasures all inspiring the next generation. What

has 2013 revealed? Has it been a good year? It has been a fantastic

year. We are beginning to understand more about the early Roman phases of

activity. We have had four approaches which all data to the

late first century early second century. Worst of them are in

pristine condition. That is a very personal artefact. That is something

somebody wore so it is very exciting. That is a connection with

the person 1900 years ago. We found a Roman brooch, pieces of prop ——

pottery and other things like that. I want to be an archaeologist when I

grow up. Local people can identify the artefacts and there has been in

1800 year timespan but people are still doing the same things. It is

nice to have that link with the past.

There is history everywhere you look in Dorchester on Thames like these

two beautiful cars. From road to rail and the Bochum railway tunnel.

Two years ago part of its ceiling collapsed. Our reporter has been

hearing how lives were put at risk on one of the busiest commuter

routes. We are thankful that they spotted the failure. It was

certainly a dangerous incident. Potentially thousands of lives were

put at risk. We have spoken to a Network Rail engineer who asked to

remain anonymous and he's told us that if just one data had had a

train passengers would have died. You are looking at a fatality. Two

trains would have been spinning round. It would have ripped the

train. They would have been fatalities. So what exactly

happened? Using the report we have recreated the situation in 2011.

This false roof manages the water that trips into the channel. It is

supposed to be tracked regularly but it wasn't. Three of the steel

girders that support the roof had partially collapsed. They were left

hanging just 11 inches above the top of the train. When safety stuff

under the tunnel they found more than a dozen boats were missing,

boats that were supposed to be fixing beams to the wall but had in

fact I've been missing, broken or not replaced fears. Worryingly, the

report tells us that as far back as 2008, engineers were telling the

company things were going wrong. The engineer responsible was not

suitably qualified and was not given the right support. The report said

he did not recognise the problem, didn't appreciate the risk and did

not consider more widespread concerns. Our whistle—blower who has

worked the decades on the tracks across the country says the problem

of inexperienced staff is still an issue and that passengers lives are

still being put at risk. These tunnels should be inspected more

often by competent people. Not somebody who, no disrespect, who has

just come out of university or college with a degree in one hand

and the torch in the other. They have not got enough men as it is on

the ground to do track examination. What used to be examined 34 times a

week is now examined in some parts once a week or once fortnight. That

is a bit worrying. The London to Brighton line is one of the busiest

in the country. More than 70 million passengers a year travel on the main

route and 2500 trains per week pass through the Balkan tunnel. The facts

are many of us want to travel by train is part of the problem is part

of the problem to Network Rail. The company have very little time to get

onto the railway between the last train at night and the first train

in the morning. More and more people want to travel late at night and

early in the morning. There is pressure on the night time to get on

the track. The railway staff are always fighting the tension between

running train passengers and finding the time to work on the track. When

the Balcome Tunnel was closed for emergency repairs two years ago this

was the scene at stations up and down the line. But while passengers

don't want this sort of chaos, they do want a safe railway. The London

to Kings Lynn service derailed at over 100 an hour. This is not the

first time Network Rail has been criticised. The company was fined £3

million for lapses in health and safety which led to the Potters bar

train crash in 2002. While the authors of this latest report don't

apportion blame, they did tell us they had asked Network Rail to

strengthen its regime of tunnel management to avoid similar

incidents in the future. This document has been published by the

real rate later and in it they had issues with the track in Sussex,

issues with planned maintenance I Network Rail. But the company has

insisted things are better and that the tunnel is safe. From my

perspective, I can assure the general public and our customers

that we have changed our processes and got much more accountability. We

are investing more money and if —— and from the kennels perspective I

am satisfied we have a re—engineered tunnel. And what of the future? The

regulator who can prosecute Network Rail if it feels the rules are being

broken has told us it will be closely monitoring the company to

ensure they are delivering a safe and efficient railway.

That is your lot for this week but before we go, let's have a look at a

few of your e—mails. We had a big response to last week 's computer

scam story. Charles from Southampton said.

Margaret was charged £137. Keep the e—mails coming. Next week, poor food

and not enough of it. How this man checked himself out of a care home

to cater for himself. I was a bit of a misfit in the home due to the fact

I've got my faculties and I could see what was going on. What he was

given was not very appetising.