REMEMBERING TEBAY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2013 :: RMTnews 11 Friday February 15 2013 sees the ninth anniversary of the tragedy at Tebay in which four men, Colin Buckley, Darren Burgess, Chris Waters and Gary Tindall, were killed due to the criminal negligence of one of Network Rail’s sub-contractors. The accident happened after a trailer loaded with 14 tons of scrap rail careered down a 1 in 74 gradient on the West Coast main line in Cumbria at over 45 mph and hit a 10-strong gang of workmen employed by Carillion who were carrying out various maintenance activities in a separate engineering possession. All four men were employed on the railway and were members of the union. In addition to the deceased, six more members of the gang received physical and psychological injuries. Two men working for the sub-contractor were found guilty of the manslaughter at Newcastle Crown Court. Mark Connolly was jailed for nine years, reduced to seven at Appeal, and Roy Kennett was jailed for two years. The anniversary will be marked by a commemorative rally this month at the site of the memorial stone that marks the tragedy. Members and RMT officials as well as other trade unions will attend to remember the disaster. Despite the changes made by the industry since the tragedy, a real risk of trackworkers being struck by runaway vehicles still remains. Thanks to the tireless campaign of the Tebay survivors, the RMT Lancaster branch and representatives of the union, real protection is now one step closer. Since Tebay there have been a number of other incidents of runaways of one type or another that came very near to killing and maiming more track workers. Included in this list are the following incidents: • The runaway of a locomotive at Blake Street in August 2005 • The runaway of a trolley at Larkhall in November 2005 • The runaway of an RRV in Copenhagen Tunnel in November 2006 • The runaway of an RRV at Brentwood in November 2007 • The runaway of a trolley at Haselmere in September 2012 RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that these incidents over the intervening nine years indicated that another Tebay was waiting to happen. ”RMT is seriously concerned that the fragmentation of the industry means that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing,” he said. In order to prevent another tragedy happening again, RMT representatives have been working to secure some form of secondary protection for track workers. The company’s other programmes will not do what secondary protection will do, which is to give track workers one last chance to escape with their lives should all the other systems fail. Since November 2012 trials have commenced of the Vortok Rearguard system. Six Rearguard secondary protection units have been delivered to Carnforth DU and field trials of these units have now commenced. A RMT health and safety rep has been seconded to oversee the trials which are expected to last five months following which a joint RMT/Network Rail report into the trials will be produced. If the trials are successful this will lead to a national roll out of the equipment this year. Nine years ago four RMT members were killed at Tebay due to criminal negligence but trials of new equipment giving secondary protection are under way REMEMBERING TEBAY