RAIB report - Holborn incident

[telstarbox]

RAIB have released their report on this near miss incident.

I'm surprised this sort of incident doesn't happen more often as some Tube platforms are very busy and passengers often have to wait for a following train rather than boarding the first one which arrives.

At about 19:00 hrs on Monday 3 February 2014, at Holborn station in central London, a passenger was dragged about ten metres along the platform by a departing Piccadilly line train, after her scarf became caught between the closing doors of one of the carriages.

The train had stopped normally in the platform and passengers had alighted and boarded. A member of staff on the platform signalled to the train operator, by raising a baton, to begin the process of closing the train’s doors. As the train operator started to close the doors, a passenger arrived on the platform and moved towards the train, stopping as she realised that the doors were closing. As she stopped, the end of the scarf that she was wearing round her neck continued to swing towards the train and became trapped in the closing doors.

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2014/report222014.cfm

 

[Busaholic]

When I worked for London Underground in the 1970s I remember a case on the Central Line where a man had got the bottom of his long raincoat caught in the door and he was dragged along the platform to a horrible death against the tunnel entrance. From memory, it was not far from Holborn, either Chancery Lane or St Pauls and it led to changes in the procedures for guards to signal the off to the driver.

 

[rebmcr]

The investigation found that the force required to remove the trapped scarf is likely to have been less than the maximum specified in the relevant London Underground standard, but it may have been difficult for a person taken by surprise and being dragged along the platform to exert such a force.

An acceptable amount of required force is greater than that of an adult being dragged? That doesn't seem right somehow.

 

[edwin_m]

According to the report, it should have been possible to pull the scarf free when it was perpendicular to the side of the train before the train started. After it started it would have been pulling against the door seal and much more force would have been needed.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

Could have potentially ended quite nasty but by reading the report, it seems apparent that there was maybe enough time between getting the scarf stuck to the train moving, to yank the scarf free or pull it off the neck either by the CSA or PAX.

 

[a729]

Could have potentially ended quite nasty but by reading the report, it seems apparent that there was maybe enough time between getting the scarf stuck to the train moving, to yank the scarf free or pull it off the neck either by the CSA or PAX.

Fortunately she wasn't at the very front of the train.