05.09.17
How are you improving passenger safety?
Recent figures from the RSSB revealed that Britain’s railways are continuing the trend of recent years and becoming even safer.
In its ‘Annual Safety Performance Report 2016-17’ report, the safety body showed further reductions in the amount of harm in terms of injuries and fatalities to rail passengers, the workforce and the wider public on what was already the safest form of land transport.
In particular, there were no passenger or workforce fatalities in train derailments or collisions. This is the tenth year in succession with no such fatalities. And the number of train accidents occurring in the ‘Potentially Higher-Risk Train Accident’ categories was 22, three fewer than 2015-16.
However, there were 39 accidental fatalities. Of these, five were passengers and 33 were members of the public, of whom 27 were engaged in acts of trespass. There was one workforce fatality during the year, occurring in a road traffic incident.
Despite a very positive bigger picture, the safety report does show some adverse trends. With sustained progress on rail safety issues, road traffic accidents to rail staff have emerged as the main source of fatality risk to the railway workforce and is a key area of focus.
George Bearfield, the RSSB’s director of system safety and health, said this year’s health and safety performance figures are hugely encouraging and reflect well on “both the increasingly progressive and mature safety processes industry deploys, and the professionalism of the rail workforce as a whole”.
With regards to the safety processes being deployed by the industry, the judges at this year’s UKRIA would be very interested in hearing from you about your work in this area – especially as, once again, the event is running the prestigious ‘Passenger Safety’ category.
If you have a story to tell that’s worthy of the attention of UKRIA’s pan-industry panel of judges, which includes senior figures such as Sir Peter Hendy and Ian Prosser, and would like to win this coveted award, then enter today.
The countdown is on to get your entries in for this year’s UKRIA. Closing date is 25 September. ENTER NOW!