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TfL figures reveal dangers on the Underground |
Mind the hazards: one near miss on Tube every week
TfL figures reveal underground incidents put passengers in danger
TUBE workers in Westminster report a potentially serious accident every week, the West End Extra can reveal.
A log of incidents at the borough’s stations, ranging from the trivial to the terrifying, shows the dangers faced by Westminster Tube users.
The book of so-called “near misses” was released by Transport for London (TfL) after a Freedom of Information request.
TfL chiefs insist safety on the Tube is their top priority.
But the log shows that passengers’ lives were put at risk many times in the last nine months, including when a stairway ceiling collapsed at Paddington under the weight of leaking water during the wet summer.
Just months before, a part of the station canopy at Edgware fell and shattered in the early morning, taking two platforms out of action.
In another lucky escape, a train at Charing Cross was stopped before it ran into a metal frame that had fallen across the electric rails, due to “worn fixings”.
In total, 40 near miss incidents were reported at Westminster Tube stations from April to December last year – more than one a week.
Of these, which included one averted collision, the report states that at least five had the potential to cause death or major injury, and 16 could have led to less severe injuries.
Some incidents apparently caused by poor maintenance lead to severe delays.
At Baker Street in September, services were suspended for 18 hours while engineers wrestled with water pouring onto tracks and switches.
After a delay of more than 12 hours, during which Thames Water shut five valves, drain engineers arrived and discovered the cause of the problem – a drain blocked with a mop head and 2kg of cooking fat.
A month later, Oxford Circus had to be evacuated and emergency services called after a fire alarm was set off by a “room full of dust”, stopping an elevator in mid-service.
Among the catalogue of other incidents were passengers being hit by falling signs and trapped in elevators, clothes being caught in escalators and a train driver being tested for drugs and alcohol after overrunning a section of rail.
A TfL spokesperson said: “London Underground takes the safety of customers and staff very seriously.
“To ensure that passengers are kept safe we ask employees to report incidents which resulted in, or which under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people or damage to property/the environment.
“We record and analyse these incidents to try to stop them happening in the first place or to prevent them from becoming more serious.
“Potential incidents or near misses are those which, in slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in minor injuries or possibly a more severe incident.
“Many incidents can be avoided. For example we advise passengers to hold on with one hand for their safety when on escalators and to take care if wearing floor-length garments that could obstruct the smooth-running of the moving-stair.
“Our ticket gates are designed so that if a customer is caught in the gate, they can be released easily and quickly.” |
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