Investigation reveals why passengers were dragged along station platforms by trains

An investigation has found that a train driver was unaware of a passenger trapped in a door at Seven Sisters Station – leading them to be dragged nine metres along the platform.

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), in a report detailing three recent incidents of people being trapped in train doors on the London Overground network, revealed that on 23rd June at around 9.11am a passenger had been dragged at a speed of 8mph before the driver stopped the train.

The London Overground train had apparently departed because the driver was unaware that the passenger’s fingers had been trapped by the doors – with a “misaligned camera” being blamed for the error. However, the passenger had managed to free their hand and the driver had hit the brakes after becoming concerned about the situation on the platform.

In a similar incident at Crouch Hill Station just six days later, a passenger’s umbrella had been trapped by the doors of an overground train. The passenger had briefly held on to the umbrella before letting go as the train had departed, travelling for around eleven metres and reaching a maximum speed of 6mph. The driver was said to have been aware of the passengers in close proximity to the train when they decided it was safe to start, but was not aware of the trapped umbrella.

No passengers were injured in the incidents but a manager for London Overground working at Transport for London said it would “do all we can to avoid similar incidents in future”.

The dispatch of both Bombardier class 710 train units operate using driver-only operation (DOO) controls, which places the responsibility of operating the doors and checking that the train is safe to depart on the driver. This check includes ensuring that no person or object is trapped in the closed doors or is in contact with the train after the doors are closed. Bodyside cameras on each coach of the train facilitate this check, allowing the driver to monitor the threshold between the platform edge and the train.

In the Seven Sister case, Arriva Rail London discovered, upon inspection, that the relevant camera on the train was misaligned. This meant that the trapped passenger was only visible on the monitor from the neck down. It was also found that the monitors’ images were not always clear. In both cases the passengers were standing at the rearmost door, furthest away from the perspective of the relevant camera.

Despite having an obstacle detection system which also helps with the drivers’ safety checks for departing, the class 710 units’ door interlock would not necessarily be able to detect objects which are thinner than 30mm, such as fingers or walking sticks, or which are non-rigid in nature, such as bag straps.

This is said to be the reason why the driver at Crouch Hill had no clue that an umbrella was caught in the door as they, the report said, “did not know about the limitations regarding door interlocks at all and that they relied on the door interlock indicator as assurance that nothing was trapped in the doors”

Drivers have been instructed not to depend on the interlock systems when carrying out safety checks, but the report says there were no face-to-face presentations of a briefing note that Arriva Rail London claimed to have posted at all driver depots, reminding drivers of this risk.

Rory O’Neill, TfL’s general manager for London Overground, said: “Safety will always be our top priority. We know any instance of getting items trapped in train doors can be very distressing and are working closely with our operator, Arriva Rail London, to do all we can to avoid similar incidents in future. Thankfully there were no injuries.”