The Rail Accident Investigation Branch has released its interim report into a fatal accident including a train and 3 railway workers in Margam, South Wales.
At around 9:52 on Wednesday, 3rd July 2019, two-track workers were hit by a passenger train at Margam East Junction – both being fatally injured. A third track worker came close to being hit and suffered from severe shock.
The three workers were working on track points No. 9577B when they were hit by the train.
The driver of the train, 2 Class 800 IETs (800021 leading), which formed 1L48 0929 Swansea to London Paddington, had applied the emergency brake, nine seconds before impact and the train was travelling at 50mph when they hit the track workers.
The RAIB’s preliminary conclusion is that the accident happened because the track workers were working on an open-to-traffic railway line without an appointed lookout to warn them of the oncoming trains.
All three workers were most certainly wearing ear defenders because one of them was using a noisy power tool when the accident happened.
None of them could hear the train coming until it was too late to move to a position of safety.
This clearly means that working on an open line without a lookout removed a vital safety barrier.
The planning paperwork for the work on 9577B indicated that the work was
to start at 12:30 hrs, this was to coincide with the planned blockage of the up mainline.
However, evidence suggested that there was widespread relief at the local depot that there was no need to wait for the blockage in the afternoon.
The system that the COSS had proposed to implement before the work began
was not adopted, and the different arrangements became less safe as the work proceeded in the morning.
It is not possible to be certain whether Track Worker 1 or 2 had taken on the role
of looking out for approaching trains. However, the witness evidence suggests that Track Worker 1 had taken on this role, but became involved in the work taking place on the points.
Our thoughts go out to the track workers involved in this accident.
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