Media centre

Tuesday 11 Dec 2012

Passengers across the south and south west of England urged to take care when travelling over Christmas

Region & Route:

| Southern: Wessex

| Southern

Nearly 300 people were involved in slips, trips or falls at stations across the south and south west of England between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, according to the latest figures published by Network Rail.

To raise awareness of staying safe at stations, a new digital and poster campaign has been launched across the Wessex route to highlight how running for a train with bags of shopping or attempting to carry heavy luggage on an escalator can end up with bruised pride as well as a bruised body.

The campaign urges people to take care when travelling by rail over the festive period – especially when travelling after Christmas parties or celebrations.

Tim Shoveller, the managing director of the Network Rail and South West Trains Alliance, said: “A combination of more people carrying Christmas shopping, trailing wheelie suitcases, wet and windy weather and people travelling late after festive parties, makes December a time where we see more people take a tumble.

“We don’t want to see anyone hurt at our stations so we’ll be doing what we can to keep concourses dry and clean and signposting lifts clearly for those with heavy luggage. We have invested millions of pounds in new lifts and better footbridges to make access in stations even better and make it easier for passengers with bags and heavy luggage to move around. Please plan ahead so you don’t end up rushing to catch your train - falling over could be a miserable end to an enjoyable evening.”

Across the south and south west of England there were 291 incidents recorded between April 2011 and March 2012. 125 incidents occurred on stairs, 97 on platforms and 50 on station concourses.

Nationally, more than 3,000 people were involved in slips, trips or falls in Britain’s stations with incidents involving luggage rising by 70% since 2004/5.

Nationally, most incidents involved people slipping on the concourse (1,488), falling down stairs (1,120) or on the platform (899) with more than 500 falls on escalators and over 400 people who fell when running. Incidents involving luggage have risen by 70% since 2004/5 with 614 recorded injuries, accounting for a fifth of the total. More than 400 incidents involved a person who was intoxicated.

December saw the most number of incidents and Fridays were the most common day for a slip, trip or fall to occur.