Railway Trust fined
The South Devon Railway Trust (SDRT) has been fined £40,000, following an incident in June 2017 when a three-year-old boy almost fell through a missing toilet floor in one of its carriages.
The fine was imposed by Newton Abbot Magistrates on May 14. The railway admitted putting passengers’ safety at risk by failing to adequately prevent entry to a toilet cubicle which was missing its floor on June 22 2017.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) investigation discovered the entire floor of the cubicle had been missing since April 2 2017.
An out of use sign had been pinned to the door, and an attempt made to secure it with two screws when the carriage re-entered traffic on around April 14. However, the investigation also found there were no ongoing checks to ensure the door remained secure, and that staff working on the train were not informed of the missing floor.
It found that at some point between April 5 and June 22 the screws broke, along with the door post, meaning the door could be easily opened. It also found that the company, which continued using the carriage for three days after the incident, had an inadequate safety management system in place which “was approximately ten years out of date and not fit for purpose”.
The ORR said the carriage required structural repair, but remained in service when the issue was discovered because the busy Easter period was nearing - when the SDRT would run nine round trips per day.
The regulator brought the prosecution under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It served an improvement notice in July 2017 requiring the SDR to put in place an established safety management system.
HM Chief Inspector of Railways Ian Prosser said: “South Devon Railway Trust took an exceptionally casual approach to ensuring the safety of its passengers, and created a genuine and unacceptable risk to the public.
“In this instance, it is only by good fortune and the swift action of the boy’s mother that this incident was not a fatality.
“The fine issued today sends out a powerful message to the heritage sector that the safety of passengers is absolutely paramount, and that thorough risk assessment and monitoring must be carried out.”