FIVE YEARS after four RMT members were killed by a runaway trailer at Tebay, the union has today slammed the “woefully inadequate” progress towards protecting workers from similar incidents and renewed its call for a public inquiry into the industry’s fragmented structure.

Colin Buckley, Darren Burgess, Gary Tindall and Chris Waters were killed on February 15, 2004, when their work gang was hit by a heavily laden sub-contractor’s trailer with defective brakes, which had run away after being ‘secured’ by a piece of two-inch fence post.

Since then there have been at least 16 more runaways, each with the potential to kill (details below) – and the industry has still not implemented promised protection for track workers.

Those who died at Tebay will be remembered in a ceremony at noon on Sunday (February 15) to be held at the memorial to the tragedy located by the track-access point in Tebay village. Media are welcome but are requested to respect the privacy of relatives. RMT regional organiser John Tilley will be available for interview – details below.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow today welcomed a commons motion tabled by Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Geraldine Smith which expresses alarm at the failure to stem the number of runaways and the danger they pose to track workers and passengers alike (text below).

“Five years after four of our members died in a runaway accident that should never have happened we still do not have the secondary protection we have asked for, and Geraldine Smith is quite right to demand that Network Rail addresses this problem with the urgency it deserves,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today

“It is our members who put their lives on the line to maintain the railway and they are telling us they want action now – not after the next tragedy, and I have told Network Rail that we are dismayed at the painfully slow progress being made.

“The relentless stream of runaways since Tebay is a disgrace that underlines that the lessons have not been learned.

“The industry remains heavily fragmented and the massive financial squeeze on Network Rail is chipping away at standards and can only undermine safety further – they even want to do away with warning detonators that could save track workers’ lives.

“For too long safety has taken to second place to profit. It is high time we saw all the privateers off our railways and listened to the people who do the work, not the bean-counters,” Bob Crow said.

ends

Notes to editors: the fatal runaway incident at Tebay, Cumbria, took place on February 15 2004, killing four and injuring three. The incidents listed below are those recorded since. (RRV = road-rail vehicle)

1 May 2004 RRV Shieldmuir

2 August 2004 RRV Stockport

3 August 2004 RRV Stockport

4 November 2004 RRV Aylesford

5 August 2005 Loco Blake Street (Lichfield)

6 November 2005 Trolley Larkhall

7 August 2006 Loco East Didsbury

8 July 2006 Ballast cleaner Cheddington

9 November 2006 RRV Copenhagen Tunnel (Kings Cross)

10 December 2006 Multi-purpose veh Kingswood

11 January 2007 Flat wagon Armathwaite,

12 October 2007 RRV Snow Hill

13 November 2007 RRV Romford

14 December 2007 RRV(adhesion) Glen Garry

15 23 May 2008 RRV Drumfrochar

16 October 2008 RRV Cambridge Heath

Early-Day Motion 793

FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF TEBAY RAIL INCIDENT

11.02.2009
Tabled by Geraldine Smith, and signed (as at February 13) by eight others

"That this House remembers that 15 February 2009 is the five year anniversary of the tragic killing of four rail workers at Tebay who were struck by a runaway trailer loaded with railway ballast, which also injured and traumatised other rail workers; expresses sympathy with their families, colleagues and the local community; is alarmed that since Tebay there have been at least a further 16 runaways on the rail network, and that runaways have the potential to kill, injure and traumatise rail workers and passengers alike; believes that the rail industry should do everything in its power to minimise the risk of runaways and introduce better protections; notes with concern the slow pace in introducing such protections and the low priority this work seems to have with Network Rail; and calls on Network Rail urgently to address this continued threat to the safety of passengers and rail workers."

For current list of signatories, please visit:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37853&SESSION=899