Elecman
Established Member
Several PWay at Hellifield in one once sent and of course the entire S&T team at Edge Hill
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Death rate at British Rail vs Coal Board in the 1980s
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ChiefPlanner
Established Member
PW gang in snow clearance duties at Severn Tunnel Junction I recall ........
I should imagine shunters had quite a high fatality rate. Running on wet sleepers trying to pin brakes down on moving wagons or getting crushed when a moving locomotive backed onto a train and you were between the locomotive and trucks/carriages.
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
Illegally riding on moving stock , sitting on a solid wooden brake stick - (as used for pinning down brakes ........)
Pretty much the first staff fatality to happen close to my workplace in my career. The station supervisor who attended kept a stick of chalk in his waistcoat pocket for fatalities.
ChiefPlanner
Established Member
For marking out the casualty - before moving it clear , and before the arrival of some sort of Police.
Generally I believe the fatality rate among shunters was less than that among pway workers, likely due to the lower speeds involved.
….moving the body on a BR overcoat with shunters poles passed through the sleeves and pockets. Or an emergency ladder if one was on hand.
Merle Haggard
Established Member
The official document I referenced earlier breaks down deaths and injuries by job classification. In 1961 the most dangerous job - in terms of fatalities as a proportion of employees - was 'Stationmasters. Goods Agents and Yardmasters'. In this category there were 4,727 employed and 10 fatalities. ! in train accident, 6 in movement accident and 1 in non-movement accident.
By contrast, the intuitively more dangerous occupation of 'Permanent Way and Signal and Telegraph staff' composed of 54,179 employees had 56 fatalities.
By contrast, the intuitively more dangerous occupation of 'Permanent Way and Signal and Telegraph staff' composed of 54,179 employees had 56 fatalities.
Slightly Off Topic but as someone who has been involved with a Heritage Railway I have been somewhat taken aback as to the disregard for safety by a significant minority who both fail to obey the rules and denigrate actions to comply with both H and S legislation and the rule book.
I am always surprised by the antipathy to locomotives with nose ends, especially when you review the many photographs on the web of Class 47 or Class 25 with completely crushed cabs. In contrast I don't believe a Deltic ever had a cab fatality.
Risk to crew (no crumple zone) versus risk to staff on-track (can’t be seen), presumably.
Strathclyder
Established Member
Class 37s did have a in-cab fatality pretty early on though: D6983's collision with D1671 at Bridgend in December 1965.
Gloster
Veteran Member
No. It was the two crew in D1671 who died; the two in D6983 survived with injuries.
Strathclyder
Established Member
Oh I see, all the sources I've consulted on this didn't specify (or I simply missed it) which loco crew died and which survived with injuries. I humbly stand corrected.