24.07.2007

Operator charged

John Whitfield, 54, of Darlington, will appear before Maidstone Magistrates Court, at 9.30am today for an early administrative hearing.

Whitfield was charged with endangering railway passengers by 'wilful omission or neglect' at a police station last week and then bailed pending today’s court appearance.

At 22:30 on February 5th Whitfield was apparently instructed by the client, InterRoute, a joint venture between Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services and Mott Macdonald, to set his Moog MB250 underbridge unit on the mainline railway bridge, rather than on the correct bridge over a river about 150 metres further down the M20 motorway.

The platform had just been extended down over the track when it was hit by 2157 train from Paddock Wood to Gillingham. The train's windscreen was damaged and the train driver and conductor were both treated for shock.

Rail services in the area were disrupted the following day and the coast bound carriageway of the M20 was closed causing long delays. There was one passenger on the train at the time of the incident a 17-year-old male who suffered a minor shoulder injury.
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Vertiikal Comment

This is a tricky case, in that it would seem that the contractor has immediately distanced itself from the incident, leaving the operator to take the full blame for this accident.

Whitfield is, we understand a fully trainined and highly experienced operator with specific training on the Moog 250. He was, we hear, simply following the clients instructions.

However it is hard to get away from the fact that the operator is responsible for his machine at all times, and although it was dark, one assumes he could see that it was a railway line he was about to start working over rather than a river?

If so then he should have demanded to see proof that the railway lines had been shut down before dropping his platform over the side.

This is one instance where the customer is not always right and the risks are too great to take his word for it.

We know of at least one other instance this year, in the UK alone, where an underbridge lift was instructed by a contractor to start work on what he had been assured was a closed railway line, only to be surprised by a speeding train, thankfully prior to any work commencing.

What seems wrong here is that there are no contractors staff in the dock with Whitfield, who more than likely was simply trying to do a good job and keep the client happy.

Sadly he appears to have been too trusting.