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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/rail-regulator-backs-deaths-inquiry.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Charlotte Thompson (left) and Olivia Bazlinton were killed at Elsenham train station, Essex, in 2005" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-rail-regulator-backs-deaths-inquiry.jpg" alt="Charlotte Thompson (left) and Olivia Bazlinton were killed at Elsenham train station, Essex, in 2005"/></a></p>
<p>The rail regulator has thrown its weight behind calls for a fresh inquiry into the deaths of two girls who were hit by a train at a railway level crossing more than five years ago.</p>
<p>The families of Olivia Bazlinton and Charlotte Thompson, killed at Elsenham station in Essex in December 2005, led the demands for a review following the emergence of a document stating their deaths should have been prevented.</p>
<p>They were joined by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) who said the crucial risk assessment report from 2002 was not released to them in the wake of the tragedy. Olivia and her friend Charlotte were just 14 and 13 when they were struck by an express train while making their way to Cambridge on a shopping trip.</p>
<p>Three-and-a-half years after the risk assessment recommended a set of barriers to the pedestrian crossing should be locked automatically when trains approach, the girls were able to walk through unsecured gates on to the tracks.</p>
<p>Olivia&#8217;s father Chris Bazlinton, 62, said the fact that the document was not released by Network Rail amounted to &#8220;a cover-up&#8221;, and it would have affected the outcome of the inquest as well as a subsequent civil case.</p>
<p>The ORR confirmed it has only just received a copy of the report, and its director of railway safety, Ian Prosser, has asked inspectors to review the document to see whether it affects the outcome of its previously concluded investigation.</p>
<p>He said: &#8220;We were extremely disappointed to learn of the existence of a vital document not previously disclosed to our investigation into the tragic fatalities at Elsenham, but grateful to the parents for sharing this new information with us. I am very concerned about companies not providing important information to a safety investigation.&#8221;</p>
<p>Network Rail said it gave the report to the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), who published its report in May 2006. A spokesman said the company&#8217;s legal team also gave it to a firm of solicitors they believed had been hired by the Thompson family, as part of a bundle of documents.</p>
<p>However, Mr Bazlinton said neither family was ever represented by solicitors and added that Network Rail should have disclosed the documents to all parties, including the families, the investigating bodies and the coroner.</p>
<p>An official from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said it did not know of the report either, adding: &#8220;Had this document been made available to the RAIB it is likely that reference would have made to it in our final report.&#8221;</p>
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