A second from death
REPORT SLAMS WORKING PRACTICES AS RAIL CREW ARE ALMOST HIT BY 125MPH TRAIN
A GROUP of railway workers who narrowly avoided being hit by a high-speed train in Nottinghamshire were working in an unsafe way, says a report into the incident.
The near-miss occurred close to Egmanton level crossing, between Newark North Gate and Retford on the East Coast Main Line at around 11.22am on October 5, 2017.
The track workers only became aware of the train , which was travelling at its maximum permitted speed of 125mph, about three seconds before it reached them.
One of the group shouted a warning to three others who cleared the track with just one second before the train passed them.
The report produced by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) found that the person in charge of the group had them working under an “unsafe and unofficial system of work”. The RAIB said the Person in Charge should have used to proper method of using the Train Operated Warning System (TOWS) by moving his team, and remaining in a safe position while TOWS was in place. The Person in Charge used an audible warning as a cue to the lookout to start looking for approaching trains in order to maximise the working time of the group of the track.
This broke down when both the lookout and the Person in Charge became distracted and forgot about the TOWS warning them of the oncoming train.
None of the team involved challenged the unsafe system of work that was in place at the time.
Even though some were uncomfortable with it, they feared they might lose the work as contractors if they challenged the Person in Charge.
Simon French, chief inspector of Rail Accidents said: ”when the person 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.
“In this investigation, RAIB found that the person in charge had adopted an unsafe method of working, in an attempt to undertake additional unplanned work.
“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 125 miles per hour with just one second to spare.
“This came so close to being a major tragedy.”