Report 16/2012: Track worker struck at Stoats Nest Junction
Track worker struck by a train at Stoats Nest Junction, Greater London, 12 June 2011.
At 05:28 hrs on 12 June 2011, train 1U11, a passenger service running from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria, travelling at about 60 mph (96 km/h), struck a member of railway staff at Stoats Nest Junction on the main line between London and Brighton, about one mile (1.6 km) south of Purley station. The person who was struck was one of a team of ten people carrying out maintenance work on the track, and he was seriously injured. There was no damage to the train or infrastructure.
The track worker who was struck did not move to a position of safety and remained in the path of the train as it passed the site of the work. Although one of the lines at the site had been returned to use shortly before the accident, having been closed as part of a possession, work continued in the vicinity of that line, and no measures were put in place to protect personnel from the passage of trains on that line.
RAIB has made one recommendation to Network Rail relating to the implementation of processes intended to deter managers from undermining the safety related duties of other staff.
Response to recommendations:
- RAIB will periodically update the status of recommendations as reported to us by the relevant safety authority or public body
- RAIB may add comment, particularly if we have concerns regarding these responses.