Strategy for rail safety improvements off track
There have been too many near misses where “workers have had to jump for their lives at the last moment”, according to the Rail Accident Investigation (RAIB) 2018 annual report.
Chief inspector of rail accidents Simon French said the organisation is not seeing “hoped-for improvements in safety for track workers” and a clear improvement strategy to address the underlying causes of near misses and accidents is yet to emerge.
The report says the RAIB’s investigation into the collision at Waterloo in August 2017 found important changes introduced following the Clapham train crash in December 1988, which killed 35 people and injured a further 484, “were not reflected in the way that signalling modifications were being undertaken”.
It also raises concerns about the management of “user-worked” level crossings, where users are responsible for operating gates themselves; “trap and drag” events on trains at platforms; and the “management of operating incidents”, including the “self-detrainment” of passengers from stranded trains.