Student killed by train during fit at Stratford station

 
Talking on phone: Erika Skuseviciute fell in front of train after having an epileptic fit at Stratford station
Miranda Bryant22 April 2015

A student was killed when she had an epileptic fit and fell into the path of a Docklands Light Railway train at Stratford station, an inquest heard.

Erika Skuseviciute, 27, was talking to her boyfriend Ricardas Svedkaliskas, 36, on the phone before she toppled onto the tracks.

He said: “Erika was a very intelligent, beautiful and caring woman with a bright future. The morning of her death she told me she had a bad dream about me dying. She was quite shaken up by it but I told her not to worry.”

Ms Skuseviciute, an economics student in her native Lithuania, had been visiting her boyfriend in Woolwich to celebrate their 10th anniversary when she was killed in October 2013.

The inquest at Walthamstow coroner’s court last week heard that she was hit by the train 12 seconds after falling off platform 17.

A passenger on the train alerted the passenger service assistant who pressed the emergency button, the hearing was told. DLR director Rory O’Neill said that even if there had been a driver who could have applied an emergency brake there was no proof the train would have stopped in time.

Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe recorded a verdict of accidental death.

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