A rail firm has been fined £1million after a young passenger was killed when he stuck his head out the window of a train travelling at 61mph.
Simon Brown, 24, died after his head collided with a signal gantry as the Gatwick Express service travelled towards Wandsworth Common station in south London
Railway buff Mr Brown, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, leaned out of the unlocked "droplight" window and suffered catastrophic injuries on August 7, 2016.
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which runs the service, admitted a health and safety breach at a previous hearing over Mr Brown’s death.
Sentencing the company at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Jeffrey Pegden QC ordered the firm to pay a £1million fine.
It was also ordered to pay £52,267 in costs.
Southwark Crown Court heard a sticker on the door warning passengers against leaning out of windows was “cluttered” with other signs.
Mr Brown, described in court as a "train fanatic", suffered a “massive trauma” to his head and collapsed.
The engineering technician with Hitachi Rail Europe died instantly, his inquest heard in July 2017.
GTR pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to ensure that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risk to their health and safety.
GTR chief executive Patrick Verwer said: "I am very sorry for the death of Mr Brown and the deep distress this tragic loss has caused his family and friends."
Ian Prosser, the Office of Rail and Road's director of safety and HM Chief Inspector of Railways, said: "Our thoughts remain with Simon Brown's family and friends at this particularly difficult time.
"It is to GTR's credit that they pleaded guilty to the offence and spared the family the pain of a protracted court case.
"We are also pleased that the court recognised the severity of the offence and reflected that in the sentence passed.
"There are still some trains with droplight windows operating on the network and we have written to operators instructing them to take immediate action to prevent a similar tragedy happening again."
At the time of his death Mr Brown - described by his mother at an inquest as "a railway man through and through" - had just started a new job as an engineering technician for Hitachi near Bristol, having worked for Southern Rail as a commissioning engineer.
Described by family as a "train fanatic", he first volunteered as a 13-year-old on the Bluebell Line, a steam heritage railway near his family home in East Grinstead.
He volunteered hundreds of hours each year and became the youngest trustee of The Howden Trust, aged just 19.
In July last year, eyewitness Kirstin Duffield, who was traveling on the Gatwick Express service with her daughter when Mr Brown was struck, told the inquest that she had heard a "loud thud" and a man in the corridor area was on the floor.
She rushed over to Mr Brown, but said there was nothing that could be done for him and his "head injury was not survivable."
