Payout for Paralympian forced to wet herself on train
Anne Wafula-Strike calls for reform after three-hour train journey where the accessible toilet was out of order
Paralympian Anne Wafula-Strike, 48, has won a financial settlement from CrossCountry trains after wetting herself on a three-hour train journey when the company’s accessible toilet was out of order.
On 8 December 2016, Harlow-based athlete Wafula-Strike was travelling home by train from a meeting in Coventry when she realised the Nuneaton to Stansted service did not have a functioning accessible toilet.
The Kenyan-born wheelchair racer and UK athletics board member says the train staff were made aware that she needed to use the toilet, but once they reached the next station there was no one there to help her off the train.
As a result, “she was forced to urinate on herself, a situation which left her acutely distressed and humiliated," The Guardian reports.
CrossCountry has apologised and made a confidential payment to Wafula-Strike, but she says the settlement cannot be described as a victory.
“It will be a true victory when what happened to me no longer happens to any disabled traveller any more,” she told the Guardian.
A CrossCountry spokesman said the incident is under “thorough review”.
“While we have apologised for the events that day, a lot of good has also resulted from this, with the whole rail industry looking at ways to make Britain's railways a more accessible environment, alongside the Department for Transport's ongoing consultation on an Accessibility Action Plan,” he told the BBC. Wednesday is the deadline for the consultation.
