Motorists are to face the threat of heavy fines – and possibly, disqualification – to discourage them from speeding through barriers at level crossings in the path of oncoming trains. Highway authorities could also face a new duty to improve safety at level crossings to combat what transport secretary, Alistair Darling, acknowledged was a growing safety issue. ‘I am concerned that there have been a number of incidents in the last year where it is clear that people have, quite deliberately, decided to take a gamble and tried to get through the barriers, not just putting their own lives at risk, but the lives of those on the oncoming train,’ Darling told MPs this week. ‘I know that on the East Coast line there have been a number of incidents which do cause me concern.’ Peers in the ~House of Lords~ introduced new clauses into the Road Safety Bill to create an offence of failing to comply with traffic lights at level crossings, and a duty on highway authorities to install protective equipment at the crossings. They also sought an obligation for councils to install warning devices and physical barriers to prevent bridge strikes. Darling told the Commons when it debated the second reading of the Bill this week that the new clauses would not achieve the purpose the promoters intended. ‘We will remove them, but we are going to introduce an alternative proposal that will deal with that particular problem.’ Under the peers’ clauses, motorists convicted of the new offence would face up to six months’ imprisonment, or a fine of £5,000, or both, and would incur a penalty point endorsement of six points. Darling said he would reflect on the penalties proposed before introducing the Government’s new clauses during the line-by-line committee stage of the Bill in the Commons. Tory shadow transport secretary, Chris Grayling, welcomed the ‘Government’s change of heart’ but said the proposed six-point penalty endorsement did not go far enough, and the Tories would bring forward their own amendments. ‘We have seen some horrendous accidents caused by cars at level crossings,’ he said, highlighting 20 recent collisions betweens cars and trains at level crossings. ‘I believe acting in a way which so blatantly jeopardises the life of others should carry a minimum penalty that includes a substantial disqualification. ‘In my view, it is no more and no less dangerous to drive across a level crossing when the gates are down than it is to drink and drive.’ The line-by-line reading of the Bill – which also includes the contentious new variable fines for speeding that would lower the penalty in 30mph zones – is set to start in two weeks’ time.