16.08.18
Staff scramble to safety from 125mph train in near-miss due to ‘unsafe and unofficial’ working practices
A group of track workers narrowly escaped a devastating incident after just moving clear of a 125mph train on the East Coast Main Line (ECML).
The incident occurred on the morning of 5 October last year at Egmanton level crossing, between Newark North Gate and Retford on the mainline.
Staff members are pictured maintaining the line as a full-speed passenger train was approaching the level crossing on the Down Main Line at 125mph. When the driver saw the group, he sounded the train’s warning horn, yet saw no response from the staff.
It was only a few seconds later when the driver gave a number of short blasts on the train horn that the track workers noticed the oncoming train— just three seconds before it reached them.
The staff had been working under an “unsafe and unofficial” system of work, set up by the Person in Charge (PiC), according to the RAIB. Instead of using the standard procedure of practice with an oncoming train using the Train Operated Warning System (TOWS) by moving his team well clear of the line, the PiC used an audible warning as a cue for the lookout – a system which broke down when the PiC and lookout became distracted and forgot about the warning procedure.
It is also believed that none of the team involved questioned the unsafe system of work that was in place, possibly due to fears they could lose work as contractors if they challenged the PiC.
Chief inspector of rail accidents Simon French explained that when the PiC in charge of a team is both a strong personality and an employee of the client, it can be “particularly hard” for contract workers to challenge unsafe behaviour.
“Both the person in charge and team members became distracted, and the result was that three of them found themselves jumping clear of a train travelling at 125mph with just one second to spare. This came so close to being a major tragedy,” added French.
The RAIB made three recommendations: strengthening safety leadership behaviour on site and reducing potentially dangerous rule-breaking by those who control safe systems of work on the site; mitigating the potentially adverse effect that client/contractor relationships can have on the integrity of the ‘Worksafe’ procedure; and clarifying to staff how the TOWS should be used.
French commented: “There have been too many near misses in recent years. It takes effective leadership and a positive safety culture to create a working environment in which everyone can be confident that safety will come first.”
Just last week, an investigation found that two bridge workers narrowly avoided a devastating collision with a train travelling at more than 70mph in Dundee.
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Image credit: RAIB, LNER