DLR fined £450,000 after driverless train death incident

Run_to_da_hills

I alwas had my doubts about the safety of fully automated driverless railway systems such as the DLR and Vancouvers sky train.

Docklands Light Railway operator Serco has been fined £450,000 after it failed to stop a train which hit and killed a man who had fallen off a platform.

Staff were given two minutes notice before the train was to arrive and couldn't be bothered stopping the system.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278039/Rail-firm-fined-450-000-man-killed-train-despite-staff-warning-lying-tracks.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Cookie_Monster

2 minutes seems like long enough to jump onto the track and get yer man outa the way.

I would also like to know if Mr Green was charged with anything for that as he did push him onto the track, albiet in self defence.

Just wait for the Sun's Headline

Robot train goes to Jail

monument

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Staff were given two minutes notice before the train was to arrive and couldn't stop the system.

No, that's not true at all.

The article says the control room had the time to stop the train but did not do so. The control room was contacted by the Transport Police but this was "treated as an 'informal request' rather than an actual report."

The CCTV cameras in the control room did not show the tracks, but the control room saw nobody panicking on the platforms, so fingered nothing was wrong. The control room staff stopped the train when they seen police rush on to the platform but it was too late and the train ran over the man.

Poor safety procedures and/or a breakdown in communication like this could affect a driver driven system just as well as an automatic system.

It's crazy that all nearby trains were not stopped when the control room received the report from the Transport Police, but the same could have happened with a driver system if the driver had not seen the person on the tracks in time.

Run_to_da_hills

monument wrote: »

No, that's not true at all.

The article says the control room had the time to stop the train but did not do so. The control room was contacted by the Transport Police but this was "treated as an 'informal request' rather than an actual report."

The CCTV cameras in the control room did not show the tracks, but the control room saw nobody panicking on the platforms, so fingered nothing was wrong. The control room staff stopped the train when they seen police rush on to the platform but it was too late and the train ran over the man.

Poor safety procedures and/or a breakdown in communication like this could affect a driver driven system just as well as an automatic system.

It's crazy that all nearby trains were not stopped when the control room received the report from the Transport Police, but the same could have happened with a driver system if the driver had not seen the person on the tracks in time.

Edited.