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zonegreen mission to enhance depot safety
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"25/11/2008
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The railway system is, we all know, an inherently dangerous working environment. In 2007 there were two fatalities to railway employees and contractors, 223 major injuries to such personnel and 1,208 injuries resulting in an absence of more than three days. These figures from HM Railway Inspectorate do, however, represent a significant improvement upon 2004 when the equivalent figures were ten, 402 and 1,898.
Encouragingly, these statistics are confirmation of a generally improving trend over recent years, although major injuries did rise by 14 in 2007 compared to 2006. It is not a trend that should give rise to complacency but one that illustrates that it is possible to improve safety through better training, awareness, physical protection and systems. It is a trend that must continue as every single injury is one too many.
Among the organisations determined to play its part in helping to improve safety, particularly in and around depots, is zonegreen, a Mechan Technology brand. At numerous traincare centres and other installations in the UK and overseas, the zonegreen SMARTTM depot personnel protection system is already reducing the scope for accidents that may be caused by human error or procedural shortcomings.
The zonegreen DPPS depends for its operation on sturdy personalised datakeys. Personnel working at the protected depot have their individual information, including authorisation levels, programmed into a datakey which each of them uses for logging onto the system or off again. This datakey may also manage access to particular areas of the depot according to the person’s duties.
The system also allows depot management to control the movement of vehicles, thereby promoting well-ordered operation and creating a safer working environment. Networked road-end panels are suitably located to control vehicle movements. The status of door limit switches, derailer obstruction, traction supplies and other plant equipment e.g. gantries and cranes can all be safely monitored to ensure a movement does not take place until it is safe to do so.
Management and operatives can use zonegreen Depot Manager software and desktop LCD screens to view vital status information from the DPPS and other sources such as trainset jacks, bogie drops, rolling stock washes and train ID tagging. Depot Manager also facilitates fault investigation and diagnosis and it logs staff and rolling stock movements to generate reports that aid downtime analysis or incident investigation.
In a workplace situation where a momentary lapse of concentration or small error of judgement can have dire consequences, properly engineered solutions can play a major part in protecting all personnel from their own or a colleague’s rare mistake. At the heart of such solutions it is not unusual to find a principle that has long been well-known to the railway industry. That principle is ‘interlocking’.
Engineers at zonegreen have applied the basic concept of interlocking to create increasingly sophisticated systems with the potential to prevent damage or personal injury in and around train depots. These systems can prevent unauthorised train movements or other actions initiated by personnel who have not followed the stipulated safety procedures or precautions.
An important example of interlocking in action within a traincare facility is the zonegreen system that physically prevents access to high-level working platforms while overhead line equipment remains live. The gate to the platforms must be opened using a key that can only be withdrawn from a control panel after the OLE has been safely isolated and earthed.
The zonegreen system also includes provision for the safe installation and removal of manual earthing clips on OLE, procedures that have historically caused serious personal injury or equipment damage if power is restored before all earth clips have been removed. The risks associated with bridging of sectional isolators by trains employing two pantographs or multiple third rail pick-up shoes may also be dealt with by these interlocks.
In short, zonegreen has developed products and systems with the potential to help improve safety in and around traincare depots and other installations as well as delivering more effective management oversight and other operational advantages.
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