A YOUNG mother has been cleared of causing death by dangerous driving after she failed to see flashing red warning lights and collided with a miniature steam train.

Marie Scrace, 23, was found not guilty following a three-day trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

She had previously admitted careless driving and was fined £500, ordered to pay £70 costs and banned from driving for a year.

Train driver Kevin Crouch was crushed in the accident on the Burmarsh Road after Scrace failed to see the lights and collided with a train from the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway in August last year.

Witnesses to the accident said Ms Scrace, of Dengemarsh Road, Lydd, had not slowed down as she approached the crossing on August 3 last year despite red warning lights flashing but they agreed she had not been speeding.

Mr Crouch had set off for Dymchurch just before 11.10am with about 100 passengers in 12 carriages.

In opening the case to the jury, prosecutor John Hillen said: “She had ample opportunity to see the lights were red. She knew the road well and knew she had to take care when approaching the crossing. There was nothing unusual to distract her but she failed to notice vehicles waiting to cross on the Burmarsh side.”

In her evidence to the court, Ms Scrace said although two boards were displayed on her side of the crossing she had only looked at the one on the right hand side of the road.

“I just didn’t register any lights flashing,” she said. “I probably didn’t look at it long enough.”

The defendant had been on her way to her partner’s parents’ home and had her 13-month-old baby son, strapped in his child seat, in the back of her Ford Escort when the accident took place.

She had been to visit a friend on the morning of August 3 nd had stopped at a garage to buy milk.

Ms Scrace, who said she had been driving since the age of 17, headed back towards Burmarsh along the coast road before turning left into Burmarsh Road.

She thought her son, James, was asleep and she had some windows open and the radio on. She told the jury she was not in a rush.

“There were a couple of cars waiting to come out on to the main road from Burmarsh Road. It affected me only to be a little bit cautious because the junction is quite narrow,” she said.

“When I turned I was doing maybe 10-15 miles per hour and I would have gone down to second gear.”

She estimated her speed along Burmarsh Road to have been about 30 miles per hour.

“I don’t usually drive very fast. I usually keep within the speed limit,” she said.

“I remember coming up towards the level crossing. I remember looking for the lights and then seeing some people to the right hand side of me. They just caught my eye. I didn’t see that the lights were flashing so I carried on going. I glanced again but it didn’t register.”

Crying, Ms Scrace continued: “I didn’t look at the left one at all. I didn’t question what I saw, so I just carried on going. I just didn’t see any lights flashing.”

She said it was not until she was on the tracks that she saw the train coming towards her and she tried to accelerate to get past it – without success.

The force of the impact almost cut her car in two. Ms Scrace and her son were taken to hospital where she was treated for whiplash together with cuts and bruising. James was not hurt.