SAFETY CONCERNS 15 YEARS ON FROM HATFIELD DISASTER

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2015 :: RMTnews 14 F ifteen years on from the Hatfield rail disaster RMT has serious safety concerns around the planning and delivery of rail maintenance through the Planning and Delivery of Work and Safe Work Leader (PDSW/SWL) programme. On October 17 2000 a train travelling from Kings Cross to Leeds derailed just south of Hatfield station, killing four passengers and injuring over 70 people. The train, travelling just under line speed at 115 mph, derailed after the left hand rail suffered a catastrophic failure breaking into 300 parts. The cause of the crash eventually forced rail maintenance back into the public sector. But RMT general secretary Mick Cash warned that the new Safe Work Leader infrastructure maintenance system had created chaos and a fog of confusion on site. “RMT has requested that Network Rail withdraw the system rolled out in the East Midlands and work with the union to develop a safe programme we can all support. “The picture we are getting from reps is one of ‘this is getting dangerous and we’d be safer under the old system’. “Network Rail needs to take this message seriously otherwise RMT will have to resort to industrial action to get the current dangerous programme halted,” he said. HATFIELD DISASTER The rail that broke at Hatfield had been subjected to excessive stresses resulting in ‘rolling contact fatigue’ also known as ‘gauge corner cracking’. This known risk was identified as a cause of the derailment and over 1,200 speed-restrictions were imposed resulting in massive delays for both passenger and freight services for over a year. There also needed to be a huge programme of rail replacement after the HSE investigation uncovered severe problems with Balfour Beatty’s management of the infrastructure which Railtrack knew of. There were two significant developments as a result of the accident, firstly Railtrack was placed into administration and eventually Network Rail took over control of the railway infrastructure. Secondly, following a long RMT campaign, Network Rail took maintenance infrastructure back in-house. CHANGES AND PROBLEMS Much has changed and much of it for the better, particularly in the area of health and safety which has led to advances in collaborative working. Since 2011 RMT has had six elected health and safety reps on full time release working jointly with the company to improve safety culture, embed a new health and safety procedure agreement and support a new set of Area health and safety reps in the workplace. There have also been improvements following on from the introduction of the Life Saving Rules and the jointly agreed Fair Culture principles. This level of health and safety SAFETY CONCERNS 15 YEARS ON FROM HATFIELD DISASTER Fifteen years after the crash union has serious safety concerns around the planning and delivery of track maintenance