TEBAY – FIVE YEARS ON

F ebruary 15 2009 will be the fifth anniversary of the appalling accident at Tebay in which four RMT members tragically lost their lives and a further five suffered a horrendous range of physical and psychological trauma. The accident happened after a faulty trailer loaded with 14 tonnes of scrap metal careered down a 1-in-74 gradient on the West Coast mainline in Cumbria, ploughing into a ten-strong track maintenance team working in an engineering possession. RMT members Chris Waters, Colin Buckley, Gary Tindall and Darren Burgess all lost their lives. Following the tragedy, RMT highlighted the need for secondary protection within a possession to stop runaways taking place. If such protection had been used at Tebay it would have prevented such a loss of life. Yet in the last year or so there have been a further three runaways at Glen Garry in December 2007, at Drumfrochar last May and at Cambridge Heath last October. These three incidents show that the rail industry has failed to get to grips with the problem of runaways and that the stance taken by the union in pressing for further protection for rail workers is correct. PRESSURE As a direct result of pressure from RMT, Network Rail’s Safety Improvement Team established a Runaways Working Group at the first meeting of the group in March 2008 RMT were represented by their nominees executive committee member Jack Jones and RMT health and safety officer Paul Clyndes. The meeting considered an analysis of UK runaway incidents and sought to establish common causes and possible solutions to the issue of runaways. The group then considered what the rail industry had done post-Tebay to protect workers. The group believed that up to 20 per cent of the runaway incidents analysed by them could have been prevented by some type of secondary protection. Finally, a paper was presented to the group on forms of secondary protection currently available, their design, uses, advantages and associated risks. In April 2008 RMT representatives, accompanied by members from the Lancaster RMT branch attended a Hazard and Operability Review (HAZOP) workshop to take forward the issues identified from the previous meeting. As a result of this, HAZOP agreed that there was no current suitable form of secondary protection that did not import a significant degree of risk arising from its use but that such a piece of equipment was required to provide added safety to track workers. Network Rail agreed to establish whether there was a manufacturer that could design and manufacture an item of equipment based on low cost, easy use principles that would provide additional secondary protection to workers. TRIALS Following discussions within Network Rail, trials were held at Shrewsbury in August 2008 at which RMT were again represented by the attendees of the HAZOP workshop. A concept device designed to be placed 200 metres on the up gradient of a work site, which would provide a 12-second warning for runaways travelling at 40mph was demonstrated. Following the demonstration a number of improvements were suggested by the observers and the company went away to do further development work. Following this trial a separate company approached Network Rail with an alternative design proposal. Network Rail did some initial evaluation but the alternative company had delivered a design that did not fit the required specifications. Network Rail have now gone back to the initial supplier who are doing further design work on the original proposal. RMT wrote to Network Rail last December expressing its dismay at the slow progress with this matter and questioned their commitment to the proposals. Although Network Rail has responded positively there are still issues the union needs the company to address so that the likelihood of a further Tebay is removed as a threat to workers on the rail network. RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: february 2009 :: RMTnews 10 TEBAY–FIVE YEARS ON Five years after the tragic accident at Tebay which killed four RMT members and the union is still battling to get better protection for track workers from runaway vehicles