23.04.13
Rail worker injured by runaway mobile elevation unit
A runaway maintenance vehicle led to a member of staff being injured on Sunday morning in Glasgow.
Rail union RMT has raised concerns about the number of agencies and contractors working on the railways, instead of directly-employed Network Rail staff.
A mobile elevation unit on a site run by Amco Rail broke free, and ran down the tracks, through a tunnel, and hit scaffolding. As a result of the incident, a member of staff working on re-pointing fell and injured themselves.
The train came to rest on platform 5 at Glasgow Queen Street and led to a partial closure of the station. An investigations is underway.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “This latest incident has once again sounded the alarm bells for the safety of staff working on rail infrastructure and RMT will be playing a full role in the investigations to get to the bottom of exactly what happened and why and we will be expecting to be fully represented at every stage of the process. It is by no means the first serious safety incident on our rail infrastructure identified by RMT recently and we want action to ensure that it is the last.
“RMT will continue to campaign for all of these works, and the staff involved, to be brought in-house with adequate staffing levels, proper safety controls and decent pay and working conditions.”
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