TEBAY - NEVER AGAIN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2014 :: RMTnews 16 TEBAY NEVER AGAIN S aturday February 15 2014 marked the 10th anniversary the Tebay tragedy which killed four RMT members Garry Tindall, Colin Buckley, Darren Burgess and Chris Walters and injured six more members of the same work gang. The underlying causes of the tragedy were the chaos of fragmentation that followed rail privatisation and the lack of compulsory secondary protection at Tebay on the West Coast main line in Cumbria that morning. Since the tragedy the union, particularly the local RMT Lancaster branch, has been relentless campaigning for Network Rail to introduce secondary protection, a campaign that has finally come to fruition. However it is ten years too late for the four men who died at Tebay. At just after 06.00 hours on February 15 2004 an overloaded faulty trailer with 14 tons of scrap rail careered down a 1 in 74 gradient at over 45 mph and hit the men employed by Carillion who were carrying out various maintenance activities. There were also a number of different contractors and sub- contractors involved in the work at another engineering possession up the track at nearby Scout Green. The RRV operator was employed by Mac Machinery who also supplied the vehicles. The crane controller was supplied by McGinley Recruitment Services. The PICOP was employed by MDA and the The 140 Vortok Rear Guard Christopher Waters Colin Buckley Gary Tindall Darren Burgess