Re: British Accident 1sr Report Out - Thames Driver Not Being Blamed At This Point

["Derick Wuen" <cullend@webone.com.au>]

Mike Roebuck wrote in message ...
>On Thu, 21 Oct 1999 00:04:55 +1000, "Derick Wuen"
><cullend@webone.com.au> wrote:
>
>snip


>>3. It seems to be a re-run of Southall 1997, the enquiry into which was
only
>>just starting last week. In fact at least one GW car involved in this
year's
>>horror was also in Southall!
>>
>definitely not a re-run of Southall, which was caused by a combination
>of an inattentive driver, and both on-train safety systems, which
>would (should) have made him more attentive, being out of action. A
>secondman in the cab would also have prevented the accident.
>

Main cause of both is systemic.

At Ladbroke Grove the Thames driver must have been inattentive or
incapacitated to ignore the yellow AWS warnings and then (apparently) a red.
A secondman may have helped. On-train safety gear, such as automatic train
stop, would have helped. Seems awfully similar to Southall to me.

>snip

>>My solution?
>>
>>1. Reregulate safety aspects with one authority with no other duties /
>>conflicts of interest.
>
>The Government has stated its intention to remove responsibility for
>rail safety from the Infrastructure operator, Railtrack. I assume it
>will pass to a single body with no conflict of interest


Given the combined abysmal performance of the "rail industry" and government
to date, why do you assume that they will do the obvious thing?

>
>>2. Install auto train stop in London metro area.
>
>It (ATP) is installed on the line where the accident took place. The
>suburban unit which SPADed was not equipped with it. The HST was, but
>it was not switched on (although this had no bearing on the accident).
>The suburban unit was equipped with AWS, which gives a visual and
>audible warning in the cab of the state of signals ahead. There are
>two apparent problems with it: the warnings for single yellow, double
>yellow and red signals are identical, and suburban services on
>London's very busy railways frequently run under yellow aspects for
>long stretches of track and time - this has led to suspicions of
>familiarity syndrome, i.e. reflex cancellation of the warnings by the
>driver
>
I repeat: install automatic train stop in London metro area. No ifs, buts
short-cuts, exceptions, lapsed intentions, second-best solutions.

>>3. Any driver SPADDING gets instantly dismissed (if survives), by law.
>>
>>The last may sound draconian and unfair given the poor engineering and
>>management, but it might make drivers slow down and look at signals before
>>proceeding, even at cost of disruption of operator's schedules.
>
>It is a totally unfair suggestion. The majority of SPADs are signal
>overshoots by a couple of metres caused sometimes by bad judgement on
>the part of the driver, but also by slippery rails, etc. There is no
>element of deliberate action here, and dismissal is not justified in
>such cases. Every SPAD in the UK, without exception, is investigated.
>Drivers are relieved of their turn of duty and drink/drugs - tested.
>Disciplinary procedures are followed, but a dismissal would only
>follow if the transgression really was severe.


Unfair but safe.

>
> This would
>>start to hit operators where it hurts (hip pocket) and they would then
>>pressure infrastructure providers to lift game.

>>
>it would only hit the operators' pockets if they incurred penalties
>for late running. If such a system were to be introduced , the
>timetable would be recast to take account of the longer journey times.


Given the long list of signalling black spots, the schedule would be
completely disrupted. This would certainly hit the hip pocket nerve.

>So no penalty payments.
>
>>Now for an urban myth in the making.....
>>
>>The was an Australian who survived the Paddington crash. A few weeks
earlier
>>he was on the Qantas 747 which went into the golf-course at Bangkok. And a
>>few weeks before that he was in a serious car-crash in Australia. So maybe
>>we have the element which brought all the possiblities of management and
>>engineering failure to a head?
>
>This made the news over here too, although I personally hadn't heard
>about the car crash.


Someone said that before the car-crash, he walked under a ladder and was hit
by a bucket of window washing water.

>
>cheers
>
>--
>Mike Roebuck, Riehen, Switzerland  icq#7018252
>'53 M Y* L-- KQ+ C c++ B11 Sh11 FCYork SSWFC R(Basle)
>Reply To: mike(dot)roebuck(at)datacomm(dot)ch