Here we go again

[fen_tiger]

This near fatality happened on 2nd of October at Waterbeach, Cambridgshire, UK where local train services run at 90mph on this main line from London and this incident was later featured on the local nightly news programme BBC Look East the same night. I don't know if the British Transport Police have yet traced the girl who ignored both the barriers and the flashing warning road signals. If she had mis-judged it by another second, she would have been killed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H1EmiXI3Zs

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Trains can't stop on a sixpence, if a car driver can't stop within 50 metres at 40 mph, then they ain't concentrating.
Modern car brakes can stop you within all the guide lines laid out in British 'Construction & Use' legislation.

If you can't handle your vehicle ...........................

............ GET OUT & WALK OR TAKE A BUS.

 

[wholbr]

Hi everybody.

please educate yourself before "hating" on Truckers.

KingConrail76 having posted several times in this thread I hope you would not count me as someone who hates truckers as I most certainly do not. I joined the British road haulage industry in the 1960s as an HGV driver and then in the 1980s qualified as a senior safety officer in the industry and have owned my own industrial safety company predominantly based in road haulage for the last seven years.

I have every respect for all who work in road transport and would go as far as to say that without doubt a class I heavy goods vehicle driver in Britain is trained to a far higher skill and knowledge level than is needed or required to drive on the railways in the present day.

Nothing can fix a speeding log truck, with no brakes ... not even RR fuse's set up 500' distant the crossing ... "Stuff" will continue to happen, and people will die ... it has been going on this way since 2600 BC ... accidents do happen, and will continue to happen, forever ... there is no stopping an out of control vehicle. Accept life ... and death, they are inevitable !

Cascaderailroad, yes death is inevitable and accidents will always happen but that does not mean that anyone has to accept that their life has to be shortened by another person(s) or organisations gross negligence. Since the introduction of comprehensive workplace safety legislation here in Britain in the 1970s industrial accidents have been reduced by over 80% amongst the countries workforce with an even higher percentage reduction in the transport industry and that figure was achieved on the back of ever increasing employment within the population.

So, with the greatest of respect and to put it in terms that you might understand cascaderailroad the foregoing means that many thousands of workers go off to their places of employment and return home alive or uninjured each day than was the case only 30 years ago. That I would suggest is a considerable achievement made to the benefit of all employed people and their dependent families. The reduction in the accident figures were made by “bringing to book” companies who put profit in front of employees welfare and the prosecution of employees who cared little for the safety of themselves and in that often caused injury to other employees. Therefore I think your above fictional speeding lorry driver with no brakes would not be very long on the roads of Britain or Europe before having is licensed removed and his truck impounded much to the benefit of all other transport users.

As stated, accidents will always happen but the challenge as always will be to find out how and why that accident happened and to bring about circumstances in which a similar accident will not happen again, and that is how the workplace accident figures continue to be driven down.

To the above, In Britain’s workplace safety industry there is a saying which goes “there is no such thing as an accident as somebody somewhere is always responsible”


Bill

 

[JCitron]

Well said again, Bill.

We have the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Occupational Health and Safety Administration. (OSHA). Both of these organizations came about during the 1970s and help make our roads and workplaces safer. The NTSB investigates transport accidents and makes recommendations on how to make things safer. They cover everything from roads and rails to air and water transportation. OSHA is responsible for enforcing safety and health standards in the workplace. Without OSHA companies were, like you said causing harm to their employees by not following safe practices.

John

 

[KingConrail76]

Hi everybody.


KingConrail76 having posted several times in this thread I hope you would not count me as someone who hates truckers as I most certainly do not. I joined the British road haulage industry in the 1960s as an HGV driver and then in the 1980s qualified as a senior safety officer in the industry and have owned my own industrial safety company predominantly based in road haulage for the last seven years.


Bill

No Bill, not directed towards you. I too respect your knowledge, and career path. I have seen in other threads comments you've made "in generalization" of "trucking" (Road Haulage in the UK, Commercial Trucking in the US), that were not really applicable to the US way of doing things, but I think we're all open minded enough to accept differences of "practice" as being what they are, and knowing well enough that different nations have different regulations, and needs for them.

I don't expect many folks know much of the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Saftey Administration) that are not directly Governed by it (North American "truckers" operating within the US Borders), just as I didn't know that "Road Haulage" is the term used in the UK to describe "trucking".

 

[wholbr]

Hi Kingconrail and everybody.
John has kindly removed further postings in this thread to a more befitting thread title "high-speed freight haulage and intermodal service" within prototype talk

Many thanks John, I will be replying to your posting tomorrow (19/10/13)

Bill
Posted from the restaurant of the Walton Park hotel, North Somerset using Samsung Galaxy tab and enjoying a nice glass of wine.