ORR advises assessment Of dROplight windOw dangeRs
Preserved lines asked to carry out risk assessments after passenger death on Gatwick express.
Steam railways will have to take additional precautions against passengers leaning from train windows, following the death of a man on the main line Gatwick Express.
The Office of Rail and Road has written to all preserved lines (via the Heritage Railway Association) and main line steam operators, requesting them to carry out risk assessments on droplight windows in steam-era rolling stock such as BR Mk 1s, and “consider any additional measures they can reasonably take to reduce the risk to as low as is reasonably practicable”.
It follows the ORR’s prosecution of Govia Thameslink Railway, operator of the Gatwick Express, which has been fined £1 million with £52,267 costs after the death of Simon Brown on one of its Class 442 electric multiple units on August 7 2016.
Mr Brown, a 24-year-old commissioning engineer with Hitachi Rail and a Bluebell Railway volunteer, was leaning from a publicly accessible droplight window in the corridor when his head struck a signal gantry at 61mph near Balham station in South London.
At Southwark Crown Court on July 17, GTR was convicted of an
offence under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, having pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 8.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch’s report into the accident concluded that the clearance between the train and gantry was less than standard; and also found that the yellow sticker warning against leaning from the window was “secondary to the wording about emergency ventilation” and was “in a cluttered environment of other warning and information signs” – although it was “not possible to say whether the lack of conspicuity of the warning notice was a factor in the accident”.
The ORR is requesting that operators of stock with droplight windows remaining in service after December 31 2019 should “design and install some form of control, such as internal door handles which allow windows to be locked out of passenger use.”
Regarding main line charters, the ORR has indicated that the current exemption of Mk 1 stock from the requirement to fit Central Door Locking will not be renewed beyond March 31 2023 (see also Down Main, SR483) and states: “We consider that by this date it is also reasonably practicable for operators to fit internal handles and lock their opening windows.”
Such measures – or window bars, such as those fitted to main line charter stock following the death of a railtour participant on the North Wales coast line in 1990 – are not specifically required for preserved railways, although in its letter, the ORR has suggested “locking off or non-provision of droplight windows if the risk is considered too great”.
The letter stated: “We appreciate that the operating environment for the standard and narrow gauge railways exhibits different characteristics to the main line. An important mitigation is the maximum speed limit of 25mph.
“Nevertheless each heritage railway should conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for people standing beside or leaning out of droplight windows. This should include what, if any, structures (e.g. signal posts, gantries, pole runs, tunnels or other areas of tight clearance etc), natural features (e.g. rock face and vegetation) are located on individual lines and what steps to mitigate the risk can be undertaken so as to achieve an acceptable level of safety.
“Mitigations over and above the maximum speed limit of 25mph may include:
l Removal or placing further back (where reasonably practicable) structures that are tight to the train. l Control of lineside vegetation. l Locking off or non-provision of droplight windows if the risk is considered too great. l Provision of prominent signage at doors with droplight windows: perhaps common wording for all heritage railways. l Use of a public address system by which train guards can inform passengers that they should only place any part of their body outside the carriage when the train is stationary. l Use of stewards if there is a consistent number of passengers ignoring the mitigations. l Operators should specifically assess trains with fully open (no upper sides or roof), semi-open (no upper sides) and closed vehicles with open verandas. Again, a risk assessment should be undertaken and suitable mitigation measures implemented as necessary.”
It concluded: “ORR does not require all heritage rolling stock on heritage railways to fit window bars or have all droplights locked off. But what we require is that all operators undertake a robust risk assessment so as to identify and put in place appropriate mitigation measures that their safety management system can monitor. However, this position could change in the future as new control measures become available or the risk profile changes.”
Asked whether there is a possibility of consultation
Each railWay Should coNduct a SuitablE riSk aSSESSmENt office of rail and road
between the preservation industry and the ORR regarding the practicality of mitigating measures or their effect on preserved rolling stock, ORR media relations manager Simon Belgard said: “The essential point of risk assessment is to look at all the issues and come up with reasonably practical solutions.
“There is no ‘one size fits all’ – it is down to the railways concerned to look at their particular circumstances and decide what to do. We are always willing to talk through problems with duty holders and reach a pragmatic solution.”
Steve Oates, CEO of the Heritage Railway Association, said: “In the light of the court case, as a matter of course, the ORR asked that we pass on their advice to all our members. It will be up to individual railways what action they take, and some have already responded to say that they had already done such a risk assessment.”
Asked whether the HRA had taken legal advice regarding the possible implications if a similar accident were to happen on a preserved line, he said that the matter “will be discussed at our next board meeting in a month’s time, and it may be passed to our legal team then.”