Rail Company Prosecuted for Health and Safety Breach
A rail company overshot the rail station by 2.5 miles, and the company will be prosecuted for the train that went so far past the station. The Office of Rail Regulation has decided it is a health and safety breach. Southeastern Train Company had a train move past the station by 2.5 miles in East Sussex at the Stonegate station. According to the health and safety audits there were two breaches based on the safety and health at work act.
The Office of Rail Regulation stated that the company failed to protect the employees and those using the train because there was not an effective system provided to ensure that the train would not overshoot the station. Sand should have been used as part of the braking system for certain weather conditions but it was not. A hearing will be held in May for the 2010 incident. The train went from Charing Cross to East Sussex. The report about the incident stated that when the brakes were first applied they did not slow the train down enough to have it stop where it needed to be. This was after the line was treated the night before due to rain. There was no sand in the hoppers to ensure that the train had an added measure for safety stops. If the train system had sand then the sand would have been deposited on the rail head, making the adhesion work better, thus the train would have stopped without going past the station.
