Electrification Construction Services Ltd
Unit 9, Wheelock Heath Business Court
Alsager Road
Wheelock
Cheshire
CW11 4RQ
SAFETY BULLETIN NRB21-01 - WORKFORCE NEAR MISS
OVERVIEW
On Saturday 19th December at 19:14 hrs a Mobile Operations Manager (MOM) was involved in a near miss with SWR train 1P57 (Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour) within the limits of Rowlands Castle station.
Rowlands Castle station is situated on a curved section of track with a line speed of 70 mph.
The signalling is under the control of Havant Area Signalling Centre.
The incident occurred during the hours of darkness.
The lines through all station platforms on the Wessex Route require a line blockage before anyone goes on the track.
The MOM was responding to a report of a bag of rubbish having been thrown onto the down line by youths.
On arrival at the station and before attempting to retrieve the bag, the MOM had contacted the signaller at Petersfield signal box regarding train movements, but this was not the signal box controlling the signals at this location.
The MOM did not ask the Petersfield signaller for line blockage protection and no protection was put in place.
After an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the bag of rubbish while sitting on the platform edge, the MOM jumped into the 4-foot of the down line but then noticed the headlights of the approaching train.
He immediately jumped back onto the platform and rolled away from the edge about one second before the train passed through the platform.
The MOM and train driver were shaken by the event which is now being investigated by Southern Region and the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.
DISCUSSION POINTS
The Lifesaving Rule is clear - you must have the required plans and permits in place before you start a job or go on or near the line.
Your safe system of work (SSOW) must be documented in a safe work pack (SWP) or an incident response pack (IRP) before doing the work.
You should always look to take the best form of protection when accessing the infrastructure to set up a SSOW.
When setting up any SSOW you must always check the Hazard Directory to identify any relevant hazards.
Ask yourself - Do you have access to this information?
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