Woman dragged by train after door traps her hand
A TERRIFIED woman was dragged along a platform after a train driver pulled away from the station while her hand was trapped in a door, a court heard.
Stephen Murdoch, 45, left the platform even though Neelan Malik, 60, was caught up in a closed door, forcing her to run as the train began to speed up, it was alleged.
She managed to free herself just before she reached the end of the platform and hit the ground, suffering severe bruising.
Miss Malik told Blackfriars Crown Court in London she was ‘very lucky to be alive … if my hand hadn’t come out I would have been off the platform on to the electrical wires’.
She had arrived as the train, which did not have guards, was leaving Hayes and Harlington, west London, at around 1pm on July 25, 2015. Rushing to board, she put her hand out as the door closed in the last carriage and was trapped for at least nine seconds before the train moved.
Murdoch is charged with endangering the safety of passengers by failing to check the length of the train was clear. Adam Pearson, prosecuting, said: ‘If this defendant had been performing his job properly he would have seen that lady trapped…and would not have pulled away.’
Murdoch, of Reading, told police he had carried out the proper checks and ‘was not aware of Miss Malik being stuck’. He denies the charge. The trial continues.