RESPONSE TO RMT RE ‘RUNAWAYS’

Tuesday 24 Aug 2004

RESPONSE TO RMT RE ‘RUNAWAYS’

Region & Route:: National

Two incidents have occurred recently in the Stockport area (5th and 17th August) involving a small piece of engineering equipment called a road / rail vehicle. These occurred during daylight hours, within a line closure, at slow speeds and no one was injured. Any safety related incident on the railway is treated extremely seriously and a full investigation is underway. Initial findings point to operator error as the cause. Since the Tebay tragedy in February, Network Rail and its contractors, with help from trades unions, have undertaken a huge amount of work to make the railway a safer place for our workforce. Training has improved, tighter certification of road rail vehicles and trailers introduced, compulsory design improvements made and new processes and procedures imposed. Further investigative work into the recent incidents is needed to ensure that all lessons have been learnt and to understand what additional measures may be needed to prevent recurrence.

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