A railway worker had a lucky escape by managing to jump out of way of train travelling at more than 50mph with just two seconds to spare, a new safety report has revealed. The near miss happened on track just south of Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, early this year.
The independent report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch said that the worker was in charge of a team of people who were clearing vegetation from the side of the line between Clarbeston Road Junction and Fishguard Harbour at around 9.45am on January 4.
Footage recovered from the train showed that they got out of the train’s path around two seconds before it reached their location. The on-train data recorder showed that the train was travelling at 53 mph
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The team normally worked at least two metres from the track, but as a train approached the team’s site of work, the driver could see the worker on the line. He had to sound the horn and applied the emergency brake.
The report said that the track worker “moved off the track and was clear of the train’s path around two seconds before the train passed them”.
It added: “The train driver reported the near miss to the controlling signal box at Clarbeston Road, and then continued their journey. The track workers stopped work at the site and travelled to another access point to undertake further work. They were then stood down after the near miss was raised with the principal contractor involved.”
The report found that the incident happened when the worker strayed outside the safe area that had been established as part of the safe system of work that had been put in place. It also said that at that area vegetation can restriction the view of train drivers in the area.
The investigation concluded that the incident demonstrated the importance of:
controllers of site safety remaining with their group to personally observe and advise them
controllers of site safety setting up and maintaining safe systems of work ensuring that staff, including themselves, remain effectively protected from moving trains
planners, responsible managers and persons in charge ensuring that the planning of work on or near the line accounts for relevant hazards at specific sites of work and that this is reflected in a safe work pack that is accurate, appropriate and specific to the task being carried out
infrastructure managers ensuring that information provided to staff about site specific hazards is up to date and accurate.
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